Rose for A Russo
by Kitten Cabada
Summary: A wizard joins the Russos to complete her wizard training because of personal matters back home. During her stay, she develops feelings for a certain Russo, but there's something in the way. Justin/OC. Temporary hiatus.
1. We have an Attic?

It seemed like any other day in the Russo family house hold. Justin was thrilled for the new day that was to come for him. He would see his (now-steady) girlfriend, Juliet, but he may have to endure another day of mischief courtesy of his sister… At least he'd be with Juliet. He grinned at the last thought after he had flossed his teeth.

Alex, on the other hand, was less than thrilled. She lazily crawled out of bed and groaned. School seemed like a meaningless chore for her. She dealt with it, however, by skipping class and seeing her best friend Harper in class or in-between. She picked out an outfit to wear and zapped it on her. She loved having magic in grueling times like this.

Jerry, the leader of the Russo clan, the father, called out from the lair for the Russo family to meet up, even Theresa, his wife. "Russos! In the lair! Hurry!"

Alex, from her bedroom, groaned and stepped out to walk toward the lair. In the hallway she met up with her older brother leaving the bathroom and her younger brother (in his footy pajamas) leaving his own room. _"That Max..." _she thought; then she shrugged. It was oddly unusual to see him like in pajamas like that. But then again, what wasn't unusual in Max's world?

They all met up in the lair. Theresa was looking chipper than usual. It was her guest behavior. When Theresa was anticipating guests, she was on her more than pleasant behavior.

Jerry was simply grinning has he began to announce, "Alright, everyone. This is very important. I want you all to be on your best behavior when our guest--" he paused when he realized what Max was wearing.

Max was in footy pajamas with cheerful blue pandas on them. Jerry scratched his head about this odd display for his young, teenage son. Why would he wear that to bed? Why would he wear that at all? Jerry wondered.

Jerry shook his head and continued, "Our guest will be arriving real soon."

"Who is it?" Justin asked.

Theresa answered for Jerry, "A wizard-friend of your father's is trusting your father to teach his daughter, and she'll be staying with us for awhile!" Theresa grinned.

Alex raised an eyebrow, "Why?" Alex was almost sure that deep down her mother was thinking, "Oh my goodness, another wizard living with us."

This time, Jerry answered, "It's a long story for now. Basically, her father has too much on his hands to train her."

"Why?" Alex asked again.

Justin intercepted his sister's question with his own. "How long have you guys known about this?"

Jerry answered, "Just yesterday. It was short notice."

Alex scoffed, "Really short notice."

Before Jerry could speak again, the wizard portal opened up in the lair and in walked a teenage girl with light skin, dark-brown hair, and brown eyes. She looked old enough to be Justin's age.

"There she is!" Jerry chirped, "Everyone, this is Aurora Rose. She'll be taking magic lessons with you!"

Aurora walked in wearing black skinny-jeans, a stud belt buckled around her waist, with a black cami top underneath a green-plaid jacket, and she had gray and pink high top sneakers. A black-and-white rose pendant dangled around her neck. She looked like she was a rocker-chick, minus the heavy dark make-up, tattoos, and piercings.

Aurora felt timid; because of this, she didn't make eye contact with any of the Russos. She instantly felt bad about her shyness. "_For crying out loud_," she thought to herself. "_I'm not four anymore._" She mentally shrugged off some of her shyness and smiled warmly to the Russos and greeted them.

"Hello," she said.

Jerry walked up to Aurora and guided her closer to the family. "Come on, dear! No need to be shy here!" Jerry grinned.

Theresa chimed in. "Yes, Aurora, you don't have to be shy around us. By the way, my name is Theresa. You can call me Mrs. Russo if you'd like."

She held a hand out to Aurora to shake. Aurora lifted her hand to shake Mrs. Russo's hand. The shake was unsteady and off at first, but eventually it synced. Theresa turned around to face her children and introduced them individually.

"The tall one is Justin, he's the oldest (and the smartest)..." she said the last bit under her breath, but everyone heard her still. Justin had a proud expression across his face. "That's Alex, stay out of trouble when you're with her..." Alex smirked and shrugged. She couldn't have been more right. "And the one in the footy pajamas... (oh boy) that's Max, he's the youngest."

"Clearly," Aurora muttered. The younger brother in the footy pajamas must have been the odd one in the bunch, she suspected.

Jerry patted Aurora on the shoulder. "Did your father leave you anything to hand to me?" Jerry asked. Aurora pondered a second, as if to recollect if her father did, and she dug into her jean pocket for a note.

"Just a 'Thank You' note," and she handed the note to Mr. Russo.

Jerry took the note, "Your father should know that it is no problem to us," he began to open it and glance over the contents.

"So why can't her father train her?" Alex interrupted.

Aurora took a noticeable deep breath and her expression change to a mixture of resentment and anger. Everyone took notice. Everyone, except Max and Alex, were concerned. Max was oblivious, of course, while Alex was confused.

"Alex!" Jerry growled. He walked up to Alex and pulled her aside from the group. He whispered angrily to Alex, "That's a sensitive subject to Aurora."

"Why?" The ability to comprehend the sensitivity of the situation was lost on Alex.

"My brother demands more attention when it comes to magic," Aurora started to explain. "Spike's my (young) twin brother and he's not exactly my favorite person in the whole world..."

"Oh, I know how that is..." Alex said sarcastically as she turned her glance towards her older brother. Justin glared back and made a face in disgust to Alex.

Jerry went back to read the note. It was more than a "thank you" note; it was Aurora's father explaining the siblings' relationship and his plans for the two in depth. He thought Alex and Justin's sibling rivalry was bad, but Spike and Aurora's was turbulent.

"I don't think you do," doubted Aurora.

Jerry looked back at Aurora and muttered to himself, "I've gotta do my best to help then."

Everyone heard Jerry muttering, and Theresa asked, "What was that, honey?" Jerry shifted his eyes. He quickly made something up so he didn't have to repeat what he actually said.

"I said, we gotta do our best to help Aurora get settled in." Jerry smiled to mask his lie.

"Oh, right!" Theresa turned to Aurora, "Where's your stuff, _mija_?" Aurora pointed to her blue backpack. "That's all?" Theresa asked her.

"It's enchanted. It can hold almost everything in here," Aurora said as a matter-of-fact.

"Impressive," Justin commented.

"I thought so," she said.

"What's 'almost everything'?" Max asked.

"Almost everything… but my car," she emphasized her disappointment. "My bag can hold everything that was in my room (including my bed), but when I went to the garage to get my car, it could hardly fit inside!"

"Well, yeah, because it was already holding your bed," Alex commented sarcastically.

"Exactly!" Aurora missed the sarcasm. "So it was 'want' versus 'need'... and I needed my bed."

Theresa patted her shoulder, "Good choice."

"Where's she going to sleep?" Alex asked, "Oh, here's a hint, she added, "Not my room." She grinned.

"Alex…" Theresa said condescendingly, "That's very rude." Alex shrugged; as did Aurora being that it didn't really bother her.

"Well, mom, she said she brought her own bed. Don't you think she needs her own room?

"Oh, that's right…" Theresa began to brainstorm. "She can't sleep in Max's room…. We might not see her the next day if one of his socks grabs her."

Aurora's head perked up in fear and curiosity and turned her head at the younger brother named Max. Her eyes widened and began to envision those cheery, blue pandas suffocating her in the middle of the night after a number of months without washing them. She shuddered at the thought.

"She definitely can't sleep in Justin's room," Jerry said glaring at Justin, then at Aurora.

It didn't process in the kids' minds (especially Max). Alex looked at Justin and Aurora. Why couldn't they share a room? Justin… Aurora… Same age. Boy… Girl… Justin looked at Aurora with squinting eyes as he pondered on it. Aurora stared back at him. It finally clicked. "Ohhhh" filled the room; followed by a "eww" from Alex. Justin never really thought about it. Sharing a room with a girl, a girl he just met. He shifted his glance from Aurora to the floor and proceeded to hide his embarrassment. Parents never fail. It's always awkward when all parents could think of when a boy and a girl share a room, is what a boy and girl SHOULDN'T do when they share one.

Jerry had an idea. "I got it!" Jerry exclaimed. "We won't let Aurora sleep in Justin's room, but we'll let her sleep in the attic above it!"

"What?" Justin was nervous now. "First, you say she--then you say…? I'm confused."

"We have an attic?" Alex asked.

"Look, I trust you both to not do any 'shenanigans' while she's above your room," Jerry explained to Justin and Aurora. Then he answered Alex's question, "And yes, we do have an attic."

"Since when?"

"Since always. Look, one day, Max found the door to the attic and the ladder fell on his head," Jerry explained.

"Oh my god, that explains a lot…" Alex laughed. Max had no recollection of the event. Justin chuckled. The laughter stopped when Jerry glared at them.

"Anyways, I hid the door by plastering over it, and I'm sure with the Russo men at work, we can re-open that door above Justin's room and Aurora can have her own space."

"Her own space, in Justin's room…" Alex added slyly. Justin glared at Alex.

Jerry corrected her, "No, Alex, just above it."

"I wonder what Juliet would think?" she teased Justin. He was embarrassed and she knew this.

"Girlfriend?" Aurora asked Justin.

"Y-yes, we're going steady." Justin felt the need to add the "going steady" part to his relationship status. Aurora simply nodded.

"We'll start working on it after you guys get back from school," Jerry said. "Now go get ready for school (and especially you, Max). Oh, Aurora, you have your records to give to the principle, right?" Aurora nodded in reply.

"I'm hungry," she said bluntly, while placing a hand on her stomach.

Theresa chuckled, "Of course, sweetie! Would you like some_ chorizos con huevos?_"

"_Tienes tortilla de f-flor?_" she struggled then laughed awkwardly at her attempt.

Theresa smiled warmly, "_Si, tenemos tortillas de flor._"

They laughed as they walked out of the lair and headed towards the kitchen. Alex mocked the conversation.

Justin took notice, "Jealous?"

"_No…_ Ha! See? That was Spanish!" Alex exclaimed. Justin rolled his eyes.

He began to think back to the situation at hand. He was going to have a girl in his room-- No, correction… He was going to have a girl above his room. This was going to be interesting. He only hoped Juliet wasn't going to read too much into it.

* * *

Kitten: My only concern is the format. Heh, I don't have much to say.


	2. Quite A Delightful Stroll

At school, Justin and Alex debated on who should take Aurora to Mr. Laritate's office.

Justin's argument was Alex should take Aurora since she had been there enough times to know where it is (with noticeable sarcasm). Alex's argument.… Well, she had none. She just didn't want to see Mr. Laritate this soon in the day. But Aurora didn't care. Either way, she'd end up going to the office.

Justin and Alex debated on and on, both repeating their points. Aurora kept looking back at her watch to make sure she still had enough to get there.

Finally, Alex wore Justin out in the debate and he withdrew. He told Aurora to follow him; he had to have the last word against his sister, "He likes me better anyways."

Alex merely shrugged and mumbled as she went through her locker to get her books, "Then why doesn't he ask you to come into his office everyday?"

It was quiet for a bit between Aurora and Justin. It was more like an awkward silence, but every now and then Justin would see something along their path and he'd talk about it, like his old advanced placement calculus class.

He brought up a time when his teacher used the wrong formula to solve a problem and Justin corrected him. He gloated about how it was not an easy mistake to make, and how it was a good thing he caught the teacher on it, or else the whole class wouldn't understand, the class would all together fail, and thus the teacher would've been fired.

Aurora pretended to sound impressed. Justin took notice right away.

"You don't care, do you?" he asked.

"It was interesting... but I'm not really into calculus," Aurora admitted. "I'm in Algebra2, and math is not one of my favorite subjects."

"Oh," said Justin. "You probably think I'm a huge nerd then."

"Yes." Justin sighed and shrugged his shoulders; Aurora went on, "I don't think it's a bad thing," then she laughed slightly. "In fact, you can probably help me study since you know a lot more than I do."

Justin smiled, relieved that Aurora wasn't going to tease him like his sister always does. "Yeah, sure," he answered her.

They continued talking, there was never a silent moment between the two anymore. They talked about magic, in hushed tones of course, so no one can hear them. They'd talk about what spells they've learned and when they had used them.

Aurora had a funny anecdote about a time when she was at a park. There was a cat stuck up in a tree and she couldn't get it down by herself. She used a bendable spell to bend the tree back so she'd be able to reach the cat at her height. The spell worked, but she lost focus when she saw how cute the cat was up close. The tree flung up-right and the cat flew out, landing into the sandbox.

"Thankfully no one saw, and the owner found the cat moments after the cat was done heaving. That poor thing freaked out though! The owner picked it up and the cat clawed onto him for dear life!" She finished, still laughing.

Justin was laughing, too. Then he was reminded of his own anecdote with his dragon-beagle. He was just beginning to share his experience, but they'd finally reached Mr. Laritate's office.

"Mr. Laritate's Office," Justin read the door aloud.

"Alright, thank you for walking me over here," said Aurora. And she smiled, "It was fun."

Justin smiled widely, "Yes, it was quite a delightful stroll. And it was no trouble at all, young miss."

Aurora giggled at his "proper" speech. "I guess I'll see you around."

"Yeah, see you," Justin said as he waved good-bye and turned around to head for class.

It was fun to hang out with another wizard, other than his siblings. It was a comfort to know that this wizard was going to be around and they could talk and hang out just like they did not too long ago.

_________________

Kitten: Shorter than the first one. Sorry! Just a short and sweet chapter.


	3. Promise!

It was second period now. For Justin, that was advanced placement English. Justin sat in his desk talking to his friend Zeke. They spoke partly in their alien-gibberish, and then talked about how cool last night's episode of _Galaxia Starship_ was.

"Did you see the part when he was like '**more pew! pew!**'?" Justin exclaimed.

"Yeah! And before that he was like **'less QQ!!**'"

"Oh, my _glorb_! That was so awesome!"

The two continued their babbling about the sci-fi until the English teacher walked in the classroom. After he did, a girl with dark brown hair walked in and walked up to the teacher's desk. Justin didn't realize who it was until she turned around.

"Go ahead and find a seat," the teacher told Aurora.

Aurora spotted Justin and waved at him. She walked up to where he and Zeke were sitting. Zeke looked a Justin and gave him a "Do you know her?" expression.

"Mind if I sit here?" Aurora suggested to the empty seat in front of Justin.

"Actually," Justin started to mess with her, "I do."

Aurora stared at him seriously and vice-versa. Zeke was confused.

And without looking at him, Justin said, "Zeke, sit in front of me."

"What?" he asked.

Justin rolled his eyes and leaned toward Zeke, whispering, "Just do it. She's new, and I'll explain later."

Now, Aurora was confused. Zeke moved around the desks to sit in the seat in front of Justin. Justin motioned for her to sit down in the desk next to him. Aurora shook her head, smiled, and sat down in the desk. The teacher began to write on the board, '_Lord of the Flies_.'

And turned to the class, "Alright, we have a new student joining us this year. Her name is Aurora Rose. Please stand up, Miss. Rose." Aurora stood up. "Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what school did you attend before transferring here?"

"I moved here from San Francisco, and I was home-schooled," Aurora said plainly.

Justin was intrigued. Mainly because he hadn't known that yet; also the fact that she was home-schooled and lived on the other side of the country.

"Really now?" the teacher asked. "You've just now transferred to public school? And moved thousands of miles to here in Manhattan? That must be a huge change for you."

"Yeah, but I'm sure I'll be fine. I always kind of thought of two cities being similar," she said.

"I see…" he said, "You may sit back down now." He motioned for her to sit down, and she did.

The teacher continued to his lecture about the novel that was written on the board. Justin was pretending to take notes when he was actually writing about something off topic. When he was done, he pulled the paper out from his binder and waited for the teacher to turn his attention away from the class. The teacher did. Justin took the folded note and nudged it against Aurora's arm. Aurora noticed the note in Justin's hand and quickly took it before the teacher saw.

"Aurora," said the teacher. She got nervous.

No way could she have gotten in trouble this soon! "Y-yes, Mr. Derwood?" asked Aurora.

"Make sure you get a copy of this book," he held up a small, red and white, hard-covered book, "_Lord of the Flies_."

"Okay," she nodded.

He turned his attention away again. Aurora opened the note and read it.

_"You didn't tell me all that stuff! Oh, and hi again. Glad to have you in AP English."_

Aurora smiled widely, trying not to laugh. She looked towards Justin and he was looking back at her. He pretended to be ashamed of her while shaking his head slowly. Aurora went back to the note, and started to add more to the note paper. She folded the note into a paper football and waited. Mr. Derwood turned his back to write additional facts on the board. Aurora flicked the paper football and hit Justin's hand. She mouthed, "Score!" as she succeeded. Justin quietly snickered. He opened the note.  
_  
"We've just met… calm down! You can't rush these things! Ha, ha, silly boy! So, do you have an extra copy for me to borrow?"_

He put the note away and looked at Aurora to nod his reply. He figured they should stop passing notes before it got out of hand and they would get caught. And for the rest of the class time, he actually took notes while Aurora sort of zoned out. After class, Zeke talked to Justin right away, nearly dragging him away from Aurora.

"Dude, who is that? You seem to know her." Zeke asked Justin.

"That's Aurora. She's my dad's friend's daughter, and she's staying with my family for awhile," Justin answered.

"Why?"

"She's got family issues," Justin said flatly.

"Oh, man, that must suck."

Justin never really thought about how much it must "suck" for Aurora. She did, after all, seem fine since she's been here, except when Alex brought up her father earlier. She can't be on bad terms with her father. No, it was her brother. Why would her brother drive her apart from her family though? Justin figured that he probably wouldn't find out right away, but in due time, he might.

Justin turned around to find Aurora. Sure enough, she wasn't too far behind. He walked up to her while she was staring down at her class schedule. He looked down at the schedule, too.

"Oh goodie, you have Algebra 2 with Alex. How she managed to get past Algebra 1 and Geometry, I'll never know," Justin said.

"You're nice to your sister," Aurora joked.

"Yeah, I know… We're really close."

"Must be nice…" She sounded serious.

He had to ask, "hey, Aurora, what's wrong with you and your--"

But before he could finish his question, Aurora interrupted, "do you think you can show me where my next class is?"

He stared at her, wondering why she did that; then he shrugged it off and agreed to walk her to her next class. If she wanted to talk, she'll talk. There was no need to pry, Justin figured. They talked about their AP English class on the way. Aurora talked about how her home-schooling went. She'd been home-schooled because her father didn't want to deal with her brother messing around with magic at school.

Justin scoffed, "My dad should've done that with Alex."

Aurora continued, "My brother didn't like that, so to be "fair" my dad had me home-schooled as well."

"That's lame."

"Yeah, well, I didn't care. I didn't feel like I was missing out anyways. Prom-- whatever, Homecoming-- who cares, and seeing people that'd annoy me-- didn't matter," she said almost bitterly. Justin felt like she was masking something.

She sighed, "I'm here now, and that's what should matter, right?" Justin snatched her class schedule.

"Hey!" Aurora whined, "Justin, give it back!"

"Promise me you'll try and have fun while you're here at this school," his tone was serious, yet trying to sound playful.

He raised the schedule in the air as Aurora, shorter than he is, struggled to reach and jump for it. She didn't give him an answer, she just kept pleading for it back.

"Promise…" he raised an eyebrow while looking down at her dark brown eyes.

Aurora pouted, "Fine. I'll try. Now, can I have my schedule back?"

He nodded. "Yes, yes you may." Justin lowered his arm and gave it back to her.

"Besides, I've already been having fun since I got here," she admitted.

Justin just smiled. He continued leading her to her next class as they talked some more along the way.


	4. Homsick? Don't you mean schoolsick?

Justin left Aurora by her Algebra 2 class when they found Alex. Alex was standing outside the classroom talking with Harper. She was telling Harper about the new wizard staying with her family.

"Yeah, she's staying with us because her father can't help her with her wizard-training. Something about her brother being demanding," Alex told Harper.

Harper noticed the dark haired girl behind Alex after seeing Justin walking away from her. "Is that her?"

Alex turned around. "Oh, yeah, that's her."

Aurora walked up to them. "Hey, Alex," she greeted.

"Hey, Aurora," Alex greeted her. "Harper, this is Aurora. Aurora, this is Harper." She introduced the two girls briefly.

"Nice to meet you," Aurora said to Harper.

She examined the outfit Harper was wearing. Yellow lightening sparks across a blue sundress; with every movement Harper made, the sparks would light up.

She pretended to be impressed, "Interesting dress."

"Likewise and thank you," Harper smiled.

Alex leaned toward Aurora to mumble something so Harper couldn't hear, "You're new here and you already knew how to amuse her. Good Job."

"Did I just see you walking with Justin?" Harper asked.

"Oh… Yes, he's been showing me around the school and has been helping me find my classes." She turned to Alex, "Your brother's nice."

Alex rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Please..."

Harper agreed, "He is. He's quite the gentleman. He has a girlfriend you know."

"Yeah, I've heard. Does she go to this school?" asked Aurora.

"Nope," then Harper started to whisper, "she's a vampire." Harper then smiled widely, "So you're a wizard, huh?" She said it as if that was to change the subject.

Aurora's expression turned to shock. She didn't believe that Justin was dating a vampire. She also couldn't believe that Harper knew about magic and magic creatures. Aurora pulled Alex away to talk to her.

"Does she know?" Aurora asked.

"Know what?" Alex looked confused.

"That we're wizards?!" Aurora whispered harshly.

"Ohhh! Yeah, she's my best friend, of course she knows. And she has promised not to tell anyone (except in the future when she writes books)." Alex mumbled the last part.

She calmed down a bit. "Oh... Okay," Aurora said. "And it's true that Justin is dating a vampire?" Aurora asked. Alex nodded in reply. She asked again, "Everyone knows she is a vampire?"

Alex answered, "No, not everyone. Just my family and Harper."

Aurora simply nodded her head and suggested that they'd go inside to class. Alex thought about it for less than a second then proceeded to reject the suggestion. Aurora looked at her confused and asked her why. Alex tried to explain that she was going to try to ditch, but Aurora tried to stop her. She explained to Alex how much it would make her feel better if she had a familiar face around.

Alex scoffed, "Heh. Funny that you say that... My face isn't familiar in that classroom."

"Just this once, and I won't tell your parents," said Aurora.

Alex groaned, "Fiinnee. Come on, Harper, let's go learn..."

Harper clenched her fist and hissed, "Yess!"

Aurora and Alex turned around and gave her weird looks. Harper was quick to apologize for her positive display for learning. She awkwardly smiled, "Sorry." And they continued their way inside the classroom.

At lunch, Aurora tagged along with Alex and Harper and sat with them in the cafeteria. Aurora claimed she wasn't very hungry. She only bought a bottle of water while Alex and Harper both went for the mystery meat burgers.

"I think my patty just moved," Harper poked her lunch with a fork.

Alex was quick to participating in poking the mystery meat patties. She looked so focused and fascinated with it. Aurora laughed in amusement.

"Oh! Look! Zeke's walking by!" Harper exclaimed to the two girls at the table, as she began to frantically wave at Zeke. "Hey, Zeke!"

Justin and Zeke were walking by, with their lunches, talking. Then Zeke's attention was caught by Harper.

"It's Harper!" he smiled. He waved back as he made his way towards their table.

Justin noticed Aurora sitting with the girls and followed Zeke. As he approached the table, he noticed the water bottle in front of her. He frowned with concern, but hid it quickly as he sat down next Zeke and across from Aurora. He took an apple from his tray and rolled it in front of her.

"Smart of you to avoid the mystery meat; you should eat something anyways," he said.

Aurora rolled the apple back. "I'm not hungry," she tried to convince him. He rolled it back to her, raising an eyebrow.

Alex looked at the two, rolling the apple back and forth. The apple would be bruised by the time someone decided to eat it. Aside from that observation, she got a vibe about the two, yet she wasn't sure if she should judge so quickly. It was definitely too soon to tell where these two stood with one another. One thing's for sure, Justin was still with Juliet and he loved her.

Aurora finally took the apple and started to chew on it. She didn't make eye contact with Justin when she did bite the apple. Zeke and Harper talked throughout the lunch hour, while Justin would occasionally glance at Aurora to make sure she was still eating the apple. She wasn't and he coughed at her. Aurora called him a bully and took another bite of the apple.

It definitely would be out of character for Justin if he actually did fall for someone his own kind, Alex thought, considering his past relationships with a centaur, a werewolf, and mostly currently, a vampire. She put aside the thought for now as Zeke complimented Harper's "sparking" outfit. Justin kept glancing back at Aurora. The apple was almost gone. He noticed that she didn't talk much around the others.

Aurora didn't have much of an appetite because of recent events. She moved out away from her home, away from her father, and away from San Francisco. At least she didn't have to put up with her brother's cynical mischief. Now, she's at a new school, met a few potential friends, maybe even her first best friend since she's been out of home-schooling. But she was still home-sick.... She missed her father, her old room, her car, and her world. It was all her brother's fault. He pushed her away from home. He had to harbor this thirst for power and dominance all because… all because their mother….

Aurora sniffled as she took another bite of her apple. Justin and Alex heard her. Justin could see small tears forming in her eyes. Alex couldn't see her eyes because Aurora's hair covered the sides of her face. She could, however, still see Aurora's lip quiver from behind the apple.

"Aurora?" Alex whispered.

Justin leaned towards Aurora and whispered, too, "Aurora, what's wrong?" The two siblings were concerned.

"I-I'm...homesick," she quietly sobbed.

She was barely audible to Justin, except Alex was able to hear what she was saying.

"She's homesick," Alex repeated for Justin.

Justin motioned for Alex to help him with Aurora and got up from his seat. Alex put her arm on Aurora's shoulder as she helped her up from her seat. Harper and Zeke wondered what was going on. Justin didn't give an explanation; he only told them that they had to go outside.

"Come on, Aurora," Justin said to her.

Justin put his hand on her other shoulder. He and Alex took Aurora outside the cafeteria. When they got outside the cafeteria, they looked for a place to sit in private. On their way, they found Max.

"Hey guys," then he noticed the sobbing Aurora, "What's wrong with her?"

Alex explained to him, "She's homesick."

Justin found a bench nearby for them to sit on and chat. He sat himself and Aurora down. Justin rubbed Aurora's back to calm her down while looking up at his siblings. He didn't really think about it, but it must've been forward of him to take action in comforting her like he is now. If she didn't mind it, then maybe he had nothing to worry about.

Max scratched his head, "How is she homesick? She's at school! Don't you think she's school sick? Maybe she had the mystery meat patties!" Max's daft train of thought strikes again.

Justin gave his younger brother a weird look while Alex slapped her forehead and explained to Max again what being homesick actually meant.

"That doesn't make sense," he said, "Why would anyone miss their home?"

Justin rolled his eyes. Max's ability to fully comprehend anything would never change. He turned his focus to Aurora as Alex sat down next to her other side. Aurora was calming down.

"What happened to you back there?" Justin began to ask.

"Well, didn't you hear her? She said she was homesick." Alex was trying to be sarcastic. Justin recognized her sarcasm and glared at her.

Aurora finally spoke, "I got upset," she cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "I didn't have much of an appetite because I'm still trying to adjust to these changes in my life. I moved all away from my home in San Francisco and my father because my brother and I can't get along. He wants to be the one to win the competition. He wants to be the one to gain my family's magic and use it for dark magic." She took another deep breath.

The three siblings were shocked to hear that. What wizard would want to gain their family's magic and use it for evil?

"That's horrible!" Max said surprised.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Justin said sympathetically. He looked towards Alex as if to imply that she should say something, too.

Alex hesitated about what to say and felt awkward. "Uhhh... yeah, brothers suck don't they?" Max and Justin gave mean looks towards their sister. She shrugged at them. What else could she say? She didn't know.

Aurora spoke again, "But your brothers don't. From what I've heard about your family, from my dad, you're all pretty close..."

The siblings looked at one another and smiled. "Yeah… we are," Alex said. Alex knew exactly what to say to her now, "And we're glad that you're staying with us because in some (weird) way... you're a part of our family now."

Aurora looked up at Alex and smiled. "Thank you, Alex." She turned to the Russo boys, "Thank you, all." Justin smiled; as did Max.

"I feel a group hug coming on!" Justin cheered.

He opened his arms to Aurora and Alex. Aurora laughed. Alex rolled her eyes. Justin reached his arms around the two girls. Alex tried to escape, but Max came up from behind her and reached around for the girls too. Alex struggled for awhile until Aurora placed one arm over Alex's shoulder to hug her, and the other on Justin's.

Aurora had a feeling that she was in a better place now. Sure, she was away from home and the things she loved, but at least she was away from her treacherous brother. Maybe she can keep that promise to Justin after all.

____

Kitten: Whew! Finally up! I hope that was enough angst for you Frocked! Ha, ha. I'm not big on the angst, but I promise there'll be some angsty moments. Thank you to Frocked and for reading my fanfic so far! You two are awesome.


	5. Settled

Later that day, the Russo siblings and Aurora arrived at the Waverly Sub Station, the Russo family's sandwich shop. Theresa was busing a table, while Jerry was in the kitchen making sub sandwiches. Theresa noticed the kids walking into the shop.

"Jerry! The kids are home!" she announced.

Theresa walked up to Aurora and asked her about her day. While they talked, Jerry finished making the orders and walked out of the kitchen with a couple of sandwiches on plates for the customers. He sat the plates down in front of the customers and walked up to his children. Jerry asked them about their day and how Aurora was. Justin looked at Alex and Max. They exchanged worried looks, and that made Jerry worried as well.

"What happened today? Did she use magic? Did Alex get her to use magic? Did she get suspended? Do people know you're wizards?" He went on with the questions.

Justin interrupted, "No, dad. Nothing like that happened. Aurora just got upset during lunch. She was homesick but we calmed her down."

"Oh," he sighed in relief. "Well, that was very nice of you all to comfort her on her first day."

"Dad, how bad is her relationship with her brother?" Justin asked. Jerry hesitated. He didn't want to them to know this soon.

"And don't pretend that you don't know," Alex added.

"Alright, fine. Follow me to the lair," he told them.

Jerry and the three Russo children walked into the lair inside the sandwich shop's freezer. Theresa went into the kitchen and asked them what they were doing. Jerry told his wife that they were going to have a brief meeting in the lair and asked her to keep Aurora busy while he and the children talked.

"Well, alright, I came back here to make a sandwich for Aurora anyways. The poor girl is starving! I wonder if she ate at all at that school," Theresa said. She pulled out a sourdough bread loaf from one of the cabinets in the kitchen and started slicing it.

Alex mumbled so only her brothers could hear, "She ate better than we did; that's for sure."

Max started to rub his stomach, "Eating those mystery meat patties wasn't very smart." Justin frowned and shook his head.

Inside the lair, Max, Alex, and Justin sat in the couches and armchairs that were around. Jerry sat in his brown armchair and took a deep breath.

He sighed, "Alright. What do you all know?"

Max was the first to reply, "He pushed her! But why would that make him evil? Unless, she really hates being pushed…"

Alex and Justin shook their heads. Jerry stared at his younger son in disbelief. His younger son's thought process shouldn't surprise him, but sometimes it catches him off guard.

"You guys know that he's evil… Did she mention anything else?"

This time Justin answered, "We just know that he wants to win their family's wizard competition and use his powers for dark magic."

"So she only told you the gist of it…." Jerry took another sigh. "As you already know, she's here because her father can't train her. He can't train her because he's going to give her brother, Spike, more personal and rigorous training."

"So he just pawns Aurora off because he doesn't think she could handle it?" Justin asks.

"No, Justin, that's not it at all. During their wizard training, Spike would always interfere with Aurora's learning. She's very capable of magic, and her father knows this. She was sent to us because he knew she'd be in good hands. He's so confident that Aurora would do well in the Wizard Competition, that if she was truly ready, she'd overcome her brother's skills with dark magic," Jerry explained.

"It's a test within a test," Alex realized.

"I'm confused. So there are two tests in the competition?" Max asked. They ignored him this time.

"Yes, that's exactly what Brandon (Aurora's father) has planned for her." Jerry stood up from his chair. "As her new magical educator, it's my job to help her reach her full potential so she can win her family's wizard competition."

Alex scoffed, "It's also your job to help us, too."

"Well, that goes without saying," Jerry said.

"It must be nice to have a father who's totally confident in one of his children to win the wizard competition," Justin said slyly.

Jerry knew where this was going. "Uhh… yeah… must be nice," he laughed awkwardly.

"So, daddy, who do you think is going to win the competition?" Alex asked, smirking.

The children stared at their father. Jerry got nervous. He was about to answer. He looked at Justin, then to Alex, and at Max. His eyes started to dart around the room nervously. Time for a scapegoat.

"What's that Theresa? You need help at the Sub Station? I'll be right out!" He dashed out of the lair.

"Dad!" The children called after him.

In the Sub Station, Theresa was chatting up Aurora while Aurora munched on her sandwich quickly. She wasn't lying when she said she was starving. Justin walked out from the lair to see Aurora taking large bites out of her sandwich. He laughed to himself. Aurora looked up from her sandwich and saw Justin watching her. Her eyes widened and she "meeped" with her mouthful. She covered her mouth up as she chewed and began to glare at Justin. She was embarrassed to let him see her stuffing her face like that. He laughed and walked up the stairs to the loft with Max. He already knew that his dad would be up there waiting for his sons to start working on reopening the plastered-attic door. Aurora finished her sandwich and started drinking the glass of soda Theresa set down in front of her. They continued their talk.

"I'm glad my kids took care of you when you were upset, Aurora," Theresa said. "They're really great kids."

"Yeah, they really helped me out today, especially Justin. He showed me around the school," Aurora said.

"Well, I'm really glad to hear that. Justin's the responsible one between his brother and sister," Theresa said proudly. She checked her watch.

"I should really get back to work here." She stood up from the table and took the empty plate from in front of Aurora. Then an idea popped into Theresa's head.

"Hey, Aurora?" Theresa asked.

She tilted her head curiously, "Yes?"

"Would you like a job here at the Sub Station?" Theresa asked Aurora. Aurora didn't know what to say. Theresa tried to convince her, "I think a girl your age would like to have a job to help buy stuff like clothes, movies, music, you know…"

Aurora smiled and nodded, "Yes, thank you, Mrs. Russo. I would love to work here at the Sub Station."

Theresa tried to clap, but realized she was holding an empty plate. "You can start work after you've finished settling upstairs in your room," Theresa smiled.

Aurora nodded and went upstairs to see what the Russo boys were up to. She found Justin's room by the sounds of groaning and Jerry's yelling. She examined the older Russo's room. He was definitely nerdy, but that didn't make him lose his appeal to her. All the gadgets, nerd paraphernalia, posters, and computers Justin had in his room. It was interesting. She looked at Jerry who was yelling at Justin to hold the chisel upright. Max was holding the ladder in place while Justin was standing on it. Justin tried to hammer the chisel but he complained that the angle was difficult to work at.

"Dad, can't we just use magic to remove the plaster on the door?" Justin asked as he struggled with the tools.

"No, son, it's more satisfying to do things on your own than with magic," Jerry explained.

"Fine," Justin groaned. He continued to chisel.

"Not so hard, Justin! Not so hard!" Jerry yelled.

A large chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling. Aurora jumped up in fear. Max hid under the ladder. Justin ducked his head. The chunk of plaster fell on Jerry's foot. He yelled in pain. Alex ran into Justin's room.

"What happened?" she asked.

Justin winced as his dad yelled in pain, "Daaaadddd…"

"Fine! USE MAGIC!" Jerry sat down and began to rub his foot. "Ow, ow… THERESA!" He hopped out of the room.

Justin waved his wand and the attic door appeared underneath the plaster. "The way it should've been done," Justin twirled his wand in his hand and blew at the end as if it was a hot gun.

"How am I supposed to get up there?" Aurora asked.

The door had a handle to pull down on, but it was out of reach without a ladder. Justin searched his room. He didn't have to look very far. He went through his laundry basket and pulled out a belt. He climbed back up the ladder and looped the belt through the handle and through the belt buckle. He climbed back down the ladder and moved it over to the side, avoiding to hit Max with the ladder. If that kid believed in superstition, he'd be having some bad luck right now.

"Reach up for it, see if it's to your liking," Justin joked.

Aurora rolled her eyes. He was referring to how short she was compared to him when she tried to grab her class schedule back from him. She reached up for the belt and was able to grab it and pull the door down. The door came down and a ladder slid from the opening. As the ladder slid down, it fell on top of Max's head. Everyone panicked.

"Oh, no," Aurora gasped.

"Max!" Alex exclaimed.

Justin rushed over to Max and lifted the ladder off Max's head. "Max! Are you OK?"

"Oh, my god!" Max exclaimed while rubbing his head. "I totally had a déjà vu moment back there! I remember having the ladder fall on my head!"

They all became a little bit relieved to see that Max was ok, for the most part. It was funny how experiencing the same event can jog his memory.

"Alex, why don't you take Max downstairs to mom? Just to make sure he's OK," Justin suggested.

"Alright, c'mon, Max." Alex helped her brother up.

"Alex, did you know that the circumference of a circle is the radius times two?" Max said.

Alex looked back at Justin, shocked, like it was some sort of miracle that the hit to the skull would cause their little brother to be a genius. The two continued their way downstairs, leaving Justin and Aurora alone in Justin's room. Aurora kept apologizing for the incident. She was sure that it was her fault. However Justin said it was no big deal. Of course, his brother could've been seriously injured, but he turned out OK. He thought it was funny how he was sitting under the other ladder; sure enough, as Justin thought, the bad lucked followed after Max. He just didn't think that it was going to be another ladder that brought him bad luck.

"I don't believe in bad luck," Aurora commented.

"You say that now," Justin said.

Aurora disagreed, "Nope, I've never believed in it."

Justin laughed, "Right."

Aurora pulled down the ladder again, this time more cautiously. The ladder slid down to the floor. She climbed up the ladder first to see what was up there. Justin waited below the ladder for her. Aurora climbed back down while coughing.

"Nothing but dust! Not even a window!" she coughed and wheezed.

"I'm sorry," Justin apologized.

Of all the places she could've stayed, it had to be in the attic of the loft. But Aurora already had an idea. She smirked at Justin and pulled out her own wand. Surprised, Justin's mouth opened a little. He had never seen Aurora perform magic before, so this had to be good.

Aurora climbed up the ladder again, this time going inside the attic. Justin followed her up and pulled his t-shirt over his mouth and nose to protect him from the dust and debris in the attic. She continued smirking. She knew he was interested in what was to come now. She waved her wand around:

_ "This place is a mess, I do detest. Remove the dust and give me a window vist-ah!"_

The dust in the room swirled around like a dust storm. A couple of windows appeared on one side of her room. The windows opened up and the dust whirled out. Below, you can hear a group of people sneeze on Waverly Place. Aurora looked out the window and laughed. She closed one of the windows and let the other one open for some fresh air to get in. She turned to Justin.

"Well?" she asked, she had a huge smirk on her face.

"Impressive spell," Justin nodded in approval.

"Thanks," she grinned. "Now, all I need is to get my stuff and I'll be settled in."

"You need help?" Justin asked her.

She shook her head, "No, not really. Thanks anyways."

She climbed down the ladder and walked back to the Sub Station to pick up her backpack. Justin followed her and walked into the kitchen to check up on Max and his dad. In the kitchen, Theresa had an ice pack on Max's head. He kept talking about random facts, such as, what's the attention span of a goldfish, or how many watts it took to jump start a car. All of a sudden, Max had obtained intelligence from taking a hit to the head. Maybe Alex was right. Maybe that blow to the head, when he was younger, was the reason why Max was so… not smart.

"Hey, mom, Where's dad?" Justin asked Theresa.

"He's sitting in table five with his foot propped up in ice," Theresa said. "You boys need to be more careful when you're doing these projects!"

"I know. Sorry, mom," Justin apologized.

Justin went out to the dining area of the Sub Station to find his dad. He saw Aurora carry her enchanted backpack up the stairs and smiled at her. He probably should've insisted on helping her, but he believed it when she said she didn't need his help. She did manage to pack almost everything she had in her backpack. Justin found his dad at table five, groaning in pain.

"Hey, Dad," Justin greeted.

"Justin," his dad gritted behind his teeth.

"I'm really sorry, dad. You know I'm not very good at that kind of thing--construction. Well, except for building robots but robots are made out of metal and wires…"

"It's okay, son," Jerry sighed.

"I got to see Aurora use magic just now," Justin told his father.

"Oh, yeah? Did the spell work out okay? What spell was it?" Jerry asked.

"It was a spell to dust the attic and add windows," Justin said, "It worked out okay considering…"

"Considering what?" Jerry asked.

At that moment, Harper walked in the Sub Station with Alex and the two were sneezing and coughing.

"Ugh! Someone decided to clean their attic out today, didn't they?" Harper coughed.

She wasn't aware that the attic she was talking about was the attic Aurora was staying in. Justin laughed. He especially started to crack up when he saw his sister covered in dust and had dust bunnies in her hair.

She glared at her laughing brother. "The wind shifted and missed Harper," she retorted.

Aurora climbed down the stairs and saw the two girls coughing. She covered her mouth because she knew that she caused it. She then looked at Alex, covered in dust, and snorted. Alex turned her glare at Aurora.

"The wind shifted!" she exclaimed.

The four of them laughed at Alex. Alex rolled her eyes and muttered something about taking a shower and don't blame her if the tub got clogged. Aurora sat down next to Justin at the table Jerry was sitting in and told them she finally settled in. They were happy for Aurora. Aurora rested her head down on the table and Justin patted her on the back. Aurora had a long day. She was here to stay. She had a room, she moved in her things, she was going to Tribeca Prep with Justin, Alex, and Max, and she was here at Waverly Place. She was at her new home now.

_____________

Kitten: Not a lot going on for the two in this chapter. Sorry. I'm trying not to rush it because I kind of like the kind of relationships that takes it's time in getting there, you know? But anyways, keep reading. I do appreciate the reviews.


	6. Friends Now

Next few days were going well. Aurora started working at the Sub Station. She was doing well in school and in her magic lessons with the Russos. The first night she spent in her room, however, was awkward for her. Aurora had had a hard time sleeping. She never spent the night at anyone else's house before.

Because of her restless state, she quickly grew bored up in her attic. Aurora leaned over the attic's opening and stared down at Justin. He looked comfortable and sound asleep. She observed the rest of his room; then had an idea. She spotted one of Justin's action figures and used a levitation spell on it.

The figure lifted up from its display shelf and floated closely to Justin's face. She motioned her wand swiftly while the figure smacked Justin in the face. He opened his eyes, saw the action figure, and jumped awake. Aurora giggled. Justin quickly realized what was going on.

He scowled, "Ha, ha, very funny."  
"I'm bored. I can't sleep. Waaahhh," she meekly whined.  
"Why not?" Justin looked up at her from his bed.  
"I've never slept at someone else's place before," Aurora admitted.

Justin understood, and he got out of his bed. He was wearing a black, form fitting t-shirt and grey sweat pants. He searched his room and pulled out a rectangular box from underneath his bed. He began to climb up the ladder to the attic, but Aurora stopped him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.  
"Do you know how to play dungeons and gargoyles?"  
She shook her head, "Nope."  
"Well, I'm going to teach you," he told her.

He continued up the ladder, and Aurora moved out of his way. Once he was in the attic, he observed the newly furnished room. She had rugs, arm chairs, a computer desk, shelves bearing a CD collection and books, a dresser next to a mirror, a few stuffed animals sat around the room, posters of rock bands and artists hung up on the walls (he made a mental note to ask her about TOB--Tears of Blood), and a twin-sized bed with a canopy draped over it.

"Wow, you really are settled in here," he commented.  
"Yeah, except that I am deprived of sleep," Aurora mumbled.

Aurora wore black shorts and a black concert t-shirt with pink knee socks covered with little white skulls and black bones. She pulled the box from Justin and examined the box. While she did, Justin observed her room some more. He walked around and looked at the objects on her desk. He noticed the computer sitting on her desk. He was tempted to turn it on and see what kind of software she had and how large her hard drive was, but he saw what appeared to be an old family portrait next to the monitor. He picked up the framed photograph and observed it. There was a young, toddler Aurora, with her twin brother, Spike. Both siblings were in the arms of her father, Brandon, and a woman, who appeared to be their mother. Aurora noticed what Justin was looking at. She coughed and shook the box to get his attention.

"Sorry," Justin apologized. He walked over to her, picked up the box from her hands, and they sat down on the floor. "Okay, the rules are simple," he started to explain. He pulled out a pencil and paper from inside the box, "You create your character on this sheet. It's your character sheet. This helps you keep track of your stats and attacks..." He began setting up the game on the floor.

For about half an hour, Justin went over the rules of the game. Soon enough, they started to play their game. Aurora was barely getting the hang of it. But Justin made sure to help her out if she got stuck. They had fun playing their Dungeons and Gargoyles game. Aurora's character managed to level up and Justin achieved the "Almighty Staff of Mortyer." And after an hour of playing, Aurora was finally growing tired.

"I'm ready to turn in," Aurora yawned.  
"Okay," Justin said, "But not until I roll a 5 or 6 get obtain more Charisma for my character." He rolled the dice.  
Aurora yawned once more, stretched out on the floor, and laid down. "You already have enough charisma." Justin smiled. She was either stating the obvious about his character or she was complimenting him for real.  
"Well, now I have more than enough because I just rolled a 5," he gloated.

Aurora didn't say anything back. Justin called her name this time. Nothing. There was no reply. He scooted over to her side. It was just as he thought: she fell asleep. He laughed quietly to himself. He put the Dungeons and Gargoyles game away and he started to head towards the ladder. He stopped and looked back at Aurora.

He thought it wouldn't be fair for her to spend her first night on the floor of the attic. Justin set the game down by the ladder and walked over to Aurora's resting body. At first, he struggled to get her up because he wasn't exactly the most athletic boy in school. He finally lifted her up and set her down on her bed. Justin was surprised that she didn't wake up. He pulled the comforter that lay at the foot of her bed and covered Aurora with it.

Aurora barely woke up when she felt her comforter on top of her. She saw Justin standing next to her bed. She opened her mouth to say something. Before she could say anything, he shushed her, smiled, and said goodnight. Aurora smiled and flipped over on her other side in her bed. Justin picked up the game box and climbed back down the ladder to go back to his own bed.

After that night, Aurora and Justin were quick to establish a friendship between one another. She would always feel weird, however, when Juliet would come by the Sub Station to hang out with Justin. Juliet knew about Aurora staying with the Russos. But then again, she never knew Aurora was staying in the attic above Justin's room. What made Aurora felt even weirder is when Juliet would come in in the middle of the friends' conversation. And sometimes, Justin would leave Aurora to hang out with Juliet. It use to make her uncomfortable, being that she didn't have anyone else to hangout with, but nowadays, she'd check up on Alex and see what she's up to. Aurora would get along alright with Alex. Aurora was willing to sit through some of Alex's favorite horror films. In exchange, she'd show Alex how to play her favorite zombie-shooter game, Left2Die or teach Alex some magic spells that would amuse her.

One day, Justin came back from hanging out with Juliet. Aurora was on the couch playing with Alex on the Y-Box console. They laughed loudly as a horde of zombies began to chase after them. The two girls didn't notice Justin walking in. Aurora screamed and laughed for every zombie that caught her by surprise.

Alex laughed cynically when she got a headshot, "Did you know I organized a zombie prom?"  
"No way!" Aurora shot a fat zombie. "Ugh! It blew up all over me!"  
"Gross!" Alex continued, "Yeah, it was awesome. Real zombies even showed up," Alex said. Her fingers were rapidly smashing the buttons.  
"Oh my god! You're serious? That sounds awesome!" she was amazed while all at once remaining focused on the game. "Ooh! Shh! Shh! There's a witch around. I'm going to go after her. Just cover my back," Aurora instructed.

Justin watched the two play their game. It was gruesome and intriguing. It looked like fun when they were playing. Justin watched intently as Aurora went after "the witch." She was getting ready to aim at the witch.

The witch was a special zombie in the game that cries hunched over whenever you're near it. If you get too close to it, it becomes aware of your presence and grows violent. If you shoot at it, it'll throw a fit and chase after you until it knocks you down and starts tearing away at your flesh.

This was Aurora's approach: her character shoots at the moaning witch. The witch becomes infuriated with Aurora's character and starts to chase after her. Justin was so into what was going on that he started to scream.

"Oh, no! Run! Run! She's going to get you!"

Aurora was startled by Justin and dropped her controller, leaving her character defenseless and motionless to the witch's attack. Alex's character tried to rescue her. She failed and the witch got away after killing Aurora's character.

"Justin! Look at what you did! Aurora's dead!" Alex whined.  
"Uhh, no she's not," he tried to be sarcastic. He pointed at Aurora, who was now panting heavily.  
She gasped, "That was really intense!"  
"Can I play?" Justin asked.  
"Ha!" Alex laughed. "Sorry, Justin, but this game isn't for wimps," she teased.  
Justin glared at Alex. "We'll see who's a wimp when I beat you at killing zombies!"  
"It's on!" Alex growled.

For about an hour the three played the zombie shooter game. Aurora and Alex were done playing, but Justin wanted to continue. Aurora reminded Justin to help her with her homework. She pried his hands from the game controller and dragged him by the arm to his room. Inside his room, Justin helped Aurora with her Algebra2 homework. He could not stop talking about the game.

"Did you see the way I shot down that huge muscled zombie after it knocked you down? Oh my god, that was epic! Just--BAM!--in the head! Soooo cool," he said excitedly.  
"Yeah, yeah, it was cool. Now, how do I solve this problem?" Aurora asked Justin.  
"Oh, 'Find X.' You have to find the angle x," he explained.

Aurora circled something on the paper and covered it up. She grinned and held up the paper to him. She circled the "x" angle on the triangle with a note next to it saying, "Found it."

"Found it!" she joked.  
Justin laughed, "You're smart."  
"I know," she grinned. She erased the circle off the paper. "I'm hungry," she said flatly.  
Justin laughed again. "Why do you always do that?"  
"Do what?" Aurora asked.  
"Just say something out of the blue, like I'm hungry."  
She laughed a little, "It's my ice breaker. I just say something out of impulse."  
"You don't need to break the ice with me, Aurora. We're friends now," Justin said.  
"I know, but it's my way of saying, 'I want to go get something to eat right now and you should come along.'" She smiled. She was a little nervous when she said it; at least he didn't think anything more of it.  
"Wow, that's a lot of words behind I'm hungry," Justin laughed. "But yeah, okay. Where do you want to go?"  
She smiled widely. "Get your sweater."

The two of them walked outside Waverly Place and started walking to the direction of the nearest harbor. Justin wondered why she wanted to go to the harbor for food. They may be friends now, but there was still a lot he needed to learn about her.

He asked her anyhow, "So why do you want to go to the harbor?"  
"For some churros from a cart," she was covering up the truth again.  
Justin didn't believe her. "That's not why!"  
She smiled. "I did say I was hungry," she recalled.  
"You did, but there a ton of churro carts near by," he said. They were approaching a cart with churros and started walking past it. "Look! See? There's a churro cart."  
Aurora shook her head. She finally came around to admitting it. "I just wanted to go to one by the harbor so I'd feel like I was at home again."

It was making sense to Justin now. She missed the bay area environment. He then decided to joke around with her.

"Want me to start an earthquake for you?" He teased, "Would you feel at home then?"  
Aurora rolled her eyes at Justin. "No, thanks, that's the one thing I don't miss about San Francisco."  
"Are you sure?" he joked again. This time he grabbed both her arms and began to shake her. He pretended to scream, "Ah! Earthquake! Ahh!"

Aurora laughed at first then insisted that it wasn't that funny. Justin wondered why. She hung her head down and sighed. She rose her head up and began to tell Justin about her mother. She told him how her mother died because of an earthquake.

"Oh, Aurora... I-I'm sorry. I didn't know..." Justin apologized.  
She reassured him not to worry. Then she sighed, "That's part of the reason why my brother is so bent on using dark magic. He just can't accept that it happened."

They reached the pier. There were people, shops, and food stands around, yet no sign of a churro cart. Aurora was disappointed. She walked over to a nearby banister on the pier to look over at the ocean view. Justin felt bad for his new friend. When nobody was looking, he pulled his wand out from his back pocket and waved it around. A churro cart appeared. Justin smiled to himself. He walked over to Aurora, pretending to be surprised, and pointed out the churro cart.

"Aurora! Look! There's one over there!"

She looked over and smiled widely. The two walked over to the churro cart's vendor, and Aurora ordered two churros for the both of them. She handed one to Justin, but he declined.

"Wha--Why don't you want one?" Aurora asked.  
"I'm allergic to cinnamon," he stated.  
She was in disbelief, "No way!"  
"Yeah, I am allergic to cinnamon and nuts. I could never have a glazed cinnamon roll topped with nuts," he tried to joke.  
"Wow… I'm sorry. I might have to keep a mental note about that," she said. Aurora shook and jerked her head and the cinnamon in Justin's churro was extracted. "There you go! A nice, tasty, cinnamon-free churro!"  
Justin smiled and laughed, "Thanks."  
"You're welcome," she grinned. "And thank you for using magic to bring me a churro cart vendor."

Justin laughed then smiled. She caught him. Aurora was definitely glad to have found a friend in Justin. The two ate their churros on the way back from the pier to Waverly Place.


	7. First Fight

Weeks have gone by and everything pretty much fell into rhythm with the new wizard in the household. Lately, Justin has been spending more time with Aurora since Juliet and her family went away on a trip for a family reunion in Transylvania. Deep down, Aurora liked it. There weren't anymore awkward interruptions since she has left for the time being. Still, Justin would occasionally miss Juliet and talk about how much he missed her. That's usually when Aurora would do something while he was distracted.

One night they were playing chess in his room, he blabbed on about how he missed her "moonlit hair" and her "fair complexion," for being a vampire. While he reminisced on his "beauty," Aurora switched the chessboard around so that she would be in the lead in the match. It'd take Justin awhile to notice the change, but sooner or later he'd realize it. He'd glare at her, she'd smile and knock one of his pawns out, and he'd laugh. He couldn't be upset with her.

She kept doing this as long as Justin was distracted and eventually learns to pay more attention when he's around Aurora. Except for the one time at school, when Justin had his locker open and he pulled out his books for his next class. He began to talk about Juliet as he was pulling out his books. Aurora took advantage of his distracted train of thought and offered to take his books. He handed over his books to her and before he realized it, she had placed the books back inside the locker right before he had shut it. He went half way towards class without his books when he realized that they were still in his locker. This time he actually got upset with Aurora. He was going to be late for class and it was going to be Aurora's fault.

"Why would you do that?!" Justin shouted.  
Aurora became defensive, "Because you were distracted!"  
"Well, it's not funny! Now, I'm going to be late for class!" He turned on his heels and walked back to his locker. Aurora followed after him.  
"Maybe if you'd pay more attention to your surroundings!" she yelled after him.  
"You'd understand if you loved someone," Justin said bitterly to himself.

He didn't want Aurora to hear him, but she did. Justin looked over at her and his angered expression changed when he saw her eyes fill up with hurt and her shocked mouth forming into a frown across her face. She looked down at the floor and shook her head.

"I'm going to be late for gym class," she said sadly. She turned around and headed towards the gym.  
"Aurora…" he sighed.

He felt so bad. He'd punch his locker if he could, but it wasn't his thing. He shrugged and lightly punched it. He wasn't one for violence. He looked around to make sure no one saw. He grinned to himself and felt like he was a rebel. Alex showed up around the corner. He jumped in surprise.

"Felt good, didn't it?" Alex teased. "Go ahead, punch it some more I'm sure it deserves it."  
Justin caught his breath, "Alex, don't do that!"  
"No can do," Alex said, "And did I hear what I thought I heard?"  
Justin raised his eyebrow, "What'd you hear?"

Alex actually likes Aurora, but it wasn't often that she found her brother doing something wrong for once (well, twice because he was late for class now).

"You and Aurora actually fighting," She pretended to sound ashamed, "I'm shocked. I'm appalled." Then she grinned, "You have my respect."  
"Alex, I feel horrible," Justin sighed in grief.  
She was still joking around, "That's natural. Pretty soon, you'll get use to it."  
"Alex, I'm serious! I didn't mean to offend her like that, but the way she's been treating me… like she…" he started to think about what the right word might be.  
"Like she likes you?" Alex finished.  
"No! She keeps treating me like you would! She's playing jokes on me when I'm vulnerable!"  
Alex shook her head. Her brother, "the smart one," was oblivious. "That's what you think," she muttered.  
"Huh?" Justin asked. He didn't hear his sister.  
"Oh, nothing," she said slyly.  
Justin checked his digital watch, "Great. I'm late to my class now."  
"Cool," she said, "Now that you've joined the dark-side, Luke. You can now follow me to gym class."  
"But I don't have gym class…" Justin didn't know where she was going with this.

Alex rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm. She dragged her older brother to the gym. There, they spotted Aurora walking laps in the gym in her black shorts, yellow t-shirt, black sneakers, with the same pink knee socks Justin saw on her the first night she stayed in the attic. Justin didn't think about it, until now, but they looked cute on her. He turned to Alex and tried to convince her that now wasn't a good time to apologize. Alex called him a coward and pushed him back. At the same time, Aurora was walking behind him. She didn't see him until he bumped into her, knocking her down.

"Oh, look, there's Harper!" she exclaimed. She walked away, leaving the two alone on the floor.

Justin barely lifted himself off the floor. He had fallen on top of Aurora--talk about awkward. Aurora groaned in pain and realized what the weight was on top of her. She flailed around to get out from underneath Justin. Justin rolled off her and sat on the floor. Aurora sat on up on the floor as well. She didn't make any eye contact with Justin after that. They just sat on the gym floor; Justin really wanted to say something. Aurora got up to continue her walking her laps. She dusted herself off and started walking away. Justin got up also, but did not follow her. He just watched her walk away in her gym clothes and pink knee socks.

Meanwhile, Alex was talking to Harper while she was climbing the rope. She looked back at the two friends and noticed that nothing had been resolved. Deep down, Alex didn't like to see friends fight, especially her friends. She had to do something. But what? She managed to get Harper and Justin to be friends again. How can she do the same for her Justin and Aurora? She brainstormed on it. Her gym teacher approached her.

"Miss. Russo, I see you haven't suited up for PE today," Coach Saiterf said condescendingly. "Normally, I'd let you slide, but I've let you slide for every time you haven't shown up to class." Alex tried to think of an excuse. She couldn't think of anything believable at that moment. Her coach raised an eye brow, "If you don't dress up, I could have Mr. Laritate suspend you for lack of class participation."  
Alex groaned, "Fine!"

Moments later, Alex came out of the locker room dressed up in her PE uniform. She looked for her brother and saw him staring down at the floor, sitting on the bleachers. He could've left to go back to class, but Alex was certain that he wanted to make up with Aurora soon. Alex looked for Aurora and saw her at the opposite side of the gym. She was sitting down on the floor, looking down at her shoes from behind her knees, and appeared to be in deep thought. Alex thought hard about what she could do. Make zombies appear! No, too dangerous. While Alex was brainstorming again, her gym teacher came up to her again.

"Geeze! You need to stop interrupting my train of thought!" Alex groaned.  
Her teacher was offended, "Excuse me? You know what? Just for that, I'm going to make you climb the rope. That should help you with your train of thought."  
"Great…" Alex cheered sarcastically.

Alex looked up and down at the rope. It looked nearly impossible to climb, but she attempted. She'd be three feet in the air while hanging on to the rope. Then she would slide down and suffer from rope burns. She exclaimed in pain.

She hissed, "There has to be an easier way to climb this thing!" She had an idea. She was going to use wand-less magic. She whispered a spell:

_"I hate this rope's detail, make it easier to scale."_

She tried to climb the rope again. As she did, the texture of the rope began to change. She examined it, it looked white and scaly--almost snake like. Not too long after the scales appeared, the patterns of the rope looked like colors of a snake. She looked below her and saw a snake head at the end of where the rope used to start. She screamed.

Aurora and Justin's attention turned to the direction of Alex's scream. It was a wonder how nobody noticed the snake transformation. When the students saw the snake where the rope used to be, they panicked. Aurora sprung up to her feet and ran over to Alex. Justin followed suit and got closer to the snake/rope than Aurora did. He turned to her and inquired why she kept her distance from the rope.

She said nervously, "I'm afraid of snakes."

Just then, the snake, along with Alex, dropped down to the gym floor (it wasn't a long drop for her). Aurora tensed up in fear. Harper came running towards them.

"Guys, you have to do something!" Harper exclaimed. "Oh, no!"

Their attention turned back to Alex and the snake. Alex had stood up after the fall. The snake began to wrap itself around Alex's body, starting at her legs, before she had a chance to get away. She tried to pry the snake away from her.

"Kill the lights, Justin," Aurora said, still tensed with fear.  
"What?" he asked. "Why?"  
"Kill the lights!" Aurora shouted.

Justin used wand-less magic and did as Aurora told him to do. The gym went dark. Everyone squirmed with fear because the snake could either be moving around or still wrapping itself around Alex. All he could hear was the snake hissing, Alex whimpering, Harper squealing with fear, and whispering. Just then, the hissing stopped, as did the whispering.

"Alright, Justin," Aurora said.

The lights came back on. Aurora must've wanted the lights off incase somebody else could see her perform the spell, or because she was too scared to see the snake. Alex was still standing and quivering with fear. There was snake skin on the floor, but no snake. Alex kicked the snaked skin, but it felt like there was still a snake in there. She cautiously lifted it up and the rope was inside the skin.

"What'd you do?" Alex asked Aurora.  
"Made the rope have snake skin and not into an actual snake," Aurora retorted.  
Alex rolled her eyes. "At least it was easier to climb…"  
The teacher walked back into the gym, "What just happened here?!"  
"Bye!" Harper darted out of the gym.  
Aurora was quick to respond, "Alex thought it'd be funny to cover the rope with snake skin."

She picked up the rope and pulled the snake skin back, like a sleeve, and revealed the rope underneath it. Alex's jaw dropped, surprised. Justin's jaw did, as well, and was also in admiration because Aurora had pinned his sister for something she didn't do.

"Alright, Russo, come with me to my office. I'm going to write you up for a week's worth of detention," the gym teacher ordered.  
"B-but Coach Saiterf! I didn't--" she glared at Aurora. She whispered so only Aurora could hear, "You're good…." Aurora smirked. Alex followed Coach Saiterf back into the locker room.

Justin felt nothing but admiration for Aurora at that moment. Suddenly, he remembered that they technically weren't speaking to each other. Aurora turned around to face him. She walked up to him and hugged him.

"I'm sorry," she said.  
This caught Justin off guard. "What?"  
"I shouldn't have joked around with you like that. I'm just as bad as your sister," she apologized.  
"No, Aurora! You're not… And I'm sorry that I said that about you! I'm sure you do have someone you love and miss a lot," Justin said. He hugged her back.  
She mumbled her breath, "About five minutes ago I missed them."  
"Huh?" Justin didn't hear her.  
She quickly covered up what she actually had said, "Let's never fight again!"  
Justin laughed. "I hear ya."  
"Yeah, right," Aurora joked.

The two walked out of the gym. Justin's arm resting on her shoulder and Aurora's around his waist. The two may have made up that day; it still didn't change the fact that he missed Juliet. However, having Aurora around distracted him from what was amiss.

"Nice socks, by the way," Justin commented.  
Aurora laughed and stared down at her legs. "You've just now noticed?"


	8. Homecoming

Homecoming was just a day away at Tribeca Prep. Harper was passing out fliers happily. She approached her friend to hand one to her, but Alex turned around almost automatically and glared at Harper. She already knew Harper was going to try to get her to go.

"Come on, Alex!" Harper pleaded.

"No, no way," she protested. "I hate homecoming. It's like a jock and cheerleader's dance."

"No, it's not! It's anyone's dance! It just happens to be...during football season...." Alex raised her eyebrow. Harper continued, "That really cute quarterback from our math class will be there…!" At this mention, Harper can see the cogs in Alex's head working. She knew she was reconsidering.

Alex reconsidered, "Jason...? Fine!"

She took a flier and went back to her locker. Harper cheered and clapped. She skipped away to continue passing out fliers. She found Aurora and Justin just when Zeke joined their small group. They were discussing the new Star Feud movie, and Zeke overheard.

"Oh, Zeke!" she cheered. She skipped past the two friends.  
"Hey, Harper!" he smiled widely.  
"Are you going to the homecoming dance?" she asked. You can nearly sense the hope in her tone.  
"I wasn't going to, but I will if you are," he said smoothly.

Justin rolled his eyes at his friend's attempt at being smooth. Aurora giggled quietly so Justin would only hear. He began to dig through his locker. Just as he did, Harper squealed at the top of her lungs and her squeal echoed through Justin's locker. He jumped and hit his head in his locker. Aurora was quick to check up on him.

"Justin! Are you okay?" she asked concerned.

Justin merely groaned in pain. He pulled his head out of the locker and placed his hand on where he hit his head. When Zeke wasn't looking, Aurora made an ice pack appear in her hand. She moved Justin's hand and placed the ice pack on his head. He hissed in pain as the cold ice pack made contact with the throbbing sore. Aurora hissed back at him, telling him to "Suck it up." He glared at her briefly for the comment she made.

"Sorry about that, Justin," Harper apologized.  
"Where'd that ice pack come from?" Zeke asked.

The three of them exchanged nervous looks. They looked at each other for an explanation, then Aurora spoke.

"Oh, I, uh, carry one in my bag. You know, just in case," she lied. He gave her a questioning look, it didn't look like he bought it.  
"To keep my water bottle cool!" she exclaimed. It became clear to Zeke.  
"Oh! That makes sense." He bought it.

Harper and Justin sighed in relief. Aurora still had her hand on his head with an ice pack. He looked at her and smiled. She had her arm really stretched out to reach his head. It was cute, he thought. Aurora looked up at him and saw him smiling at her. She got noticeably nervous and looked away. He laughed quietly to himself and took the ice pack out of her hand. He mouthed a "thank you" when she looked up at him again.

"You're welcome," she said quietly and nervously.

Harper and Zeke looked at one another with questioning looks; they didn't know what was going on between the two friends. Harper then remembered what she was suppose to do.

"Are you two going to homecoming?" Harper asked. She offered them each a flier. Justin took a flier with his free hand.

He looked at the flier, "Yeah, I'm going."

Aurora took a flier, too, and looked at it. Justin looked at Aurora, waiting to hear what she would say. She read the flier and didn't look very excited.

"I don't think I'll go," she said. Justin, taken back, asked her why not. "I don't know… I just don't think I'd have fun. I'd just be another wall flower (amongst the other rejects and losers) at that dance," she explained.  
"Aurora…" he raised an eyebrow at her. He was hoping Aurora would remember what she promised him.  
Of course, Aurora did remember, but that still didn't persuade her to go. "I just don't feel like going," she told the group.

Justin shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, accepting it as her final answer. The bell rang for class to start. Harper cheerfully waved good-bye to Zeke, Justin, and Aurora. The three walked away to their next class, Zeke and Justin talking about the dance, while Aurora didn't speak at all about it.

Aurora really didn't have any experience in school dances prior to attending Tribeca Prep, except in Jr. High before she was home schooled. That dance, however, wasn't very exciting. She remembered having a crush on a boy in her class. She got asked by him to go, but when she did, she was too timid to doing anything at the dance. No pictures, didn't slow dance with him, didn't dance at all, she just sat at the dance (by the wall), and he left her to spend time with a more exciting girl. Someone who wasn't a wall flower. Now that she thought about it, that was a sad night for her, which resulted in her swearing off school dances. If she really wanted to go to a school dance, it'd had to be prom or something with an elegant theme to it.

Later that day, Aurora started her shift at the Sub Station with Alex and Max. Justin was out with Zeke at a comic book store. Jerry was in the back making sandwiches while Theresa was upstairs cleaning house. It was a slow day at the sandwich shop. Alex still resented Aurora for pinning her with the "snake-rope trick." She to admit, it was pretty clever, but it led up to an unnecessary trip to detention. Come to think of it, she thought, it did get Justin and Aurora to forgive each other. Maybe that part wasn't so bad. But, boy, did she hate how quickly she got pushed under the bus for it.

Alex looked up from the counter as Aurora finished serving a tray of sandwiches to table three. She sat down at the counter and sighed. Alex had a feeling Aurora was wanting something from her, like guidance or advice. Soon enough, she was right.

Aurora sighed again, "Alex… Are you going to the homecoming dance?"  
Alex squinted her eyes as if to be in deep thought, shook her head, but inevitably said, "Yeeeahh. Why? Are you?"  
"No… Your brother and Zeke are going, and it looked like your brother wanted me to go, too. I'm just letting my past experiences get in my way, I guess." Alex listened as she continued explaining, "Alright, I've never been to any high school dances before since I was home schooled. I did go in Jr. High and I did not have fun, let me just put it that way. Harper gave me a flier--"  
Alex interrupted her, "You, too, huh? Attacked you with her perkiness?"  
Aurora nodded. "Yeah. Anyways, your brother sounded like he wanted me to go and even gave me this look like, 'Aurora, you should go,' and I understand why he'd give me that look. He made me promise that I'd have fun while I'm here."  
"I'm sorry even looked at you at all," Alex retorted. Aurora glared at her. She knew she was trying to be funny, but Aurora was trying to be serious. Alex apologized. "So what do you want from me?" She asked Aurora.  
"Some advice would be much appreciated," Aurora said.  
Max butted in, "I think you should do the funky chicken. That's always a fun thing to do at dances!"  
Alex exclaimed, "NO! No, you should not!"  
"I want to have fun… not to embarrass myself, Max," Aurora said.  
"Fine, suit yourself. But don't be surprised if I become the highlight of the dance for initiating the funky chicken," Max said slyly.  
"I'd make sure to clarify that I have no relation to him, if I were you," she told Alex.  
"I'm already on top of it," she scoffed.

That night, Justin and Aurora hung out in his room before bed. They were playing Dungeons and Gargoyles again. Aurora laid on her stomach on the floor, using his pillow as a cushion for her arms. He didn't really talk about the dance with her. And she was almost sure he would and pressure her to go but he didn't. They just talked about anything else except the dance. He even mentioned how on his way home he had to catch a level 4 dwarf on his way home when he hung out with Zeke. It turned out he ran into the wrong dwarf. It was just a short person. The real dwarf was actually standing inside a shop close by to where he had found the short person. Long story short (pardon the pun), apologized profusely to the little person and managed to capture the real dwarf. Aurora thought it was funny, but she wasn't sure if she should really laugh because something felt off between the two. She figured she'd try to get him to help her with something, make sure that they're actually okay.

"So, Justin, I was wondering if you could help me with a spell," she started.  
"What spell?" he asked her.  
"The, um, the…" she was stumped. She couldn't think of a spell that she didn't know just yet. He just stared at her. He didn't really seem remotely interested in helping her, but she tried anyway. "The… vine spell!" she sputtered.  
"You made that up," he sounded discredited.  
She slammed her head into his pillow. "Yeah, I know…" then she went with it again, "I was wondering if you'd help me make it up."  
He thought about it. Then he asked, "What were you thinking when you thought of it?"  
"Think of a spell to get Justin to help me," she said nervously.  
His plain expression broke and he smiled. "No, what do you want the vine spell to do when you conjure it?"  
She felt embarrassed. "Oh, well… shoot. I don't know. I guess since we're talking about vines. Maybe I'd want it to act like a tool. You know, to bind someone or constrict them," she contemplated.  
"Now that sounds like a good spell to work on. And who knows, it might be useful when you and your brother face each other in the wizard competition," he said.  
"Yeah!" she exclaimed.  
"But we'll work on it another time, I promise," he hinted. It was almost passive aggressive and Aurora was back to feeling guilty.  
She sighed, "I'm getting tired."

She got up, tossed his pillow on his bed, and climbed up the attic ladder. Justin frowned. He felt like he shouldn't have been harsh to Aurora, but she did promise she'd have fun. He picked up the pieces to the Dungeons and Gargoyles table-top role playing game and got ready for bed.

The next day, after school, Aurora was at the Sub Station helping Theresa and Jerry while the young Russos were at the school watching the football homecoming game. Business was slow tonight. Aurora sat behind the counter, playing solitaire on her cell phone; she wasn't winning.

Aurora and Justin were somewhat alright despite recent events. He didn't apologize for what he said last night, nor did either of them bring it up. They did, however, pretend that it didn't happen and avoided talking about the dance. They actually wound up not saying much to each other at school. It was hard not to talk about the dance, being that it was what most people were talking about.

Aurora groaned in frustration. She was stuck in her card game now. There's always that one card that was needed but couldn't be used because a pile of cards remained on the one needed since there's nowhere else to place the pile. Theresa noticed Aurora's frustration and she sat in a stool in front of the counter.

"Aurora, dear," Theresa said sincerely, "What's wrong?"  
"Stupid card game…" she groaned. Theresa looked over at her cell phone and examined the layout of her cards. She was stuck but…  
"Why aren't you at the game with the kids?" she asked.  
"I didn't want to go," she answered.  
"And the dance?" Theresa asked.  
"I didn't want to go to that either," she said. Aurora closed her phone. "Stupid…"  
Theresa picked up Aurora's phone and opened it. "Why not?"  
"I just don't think I'd have fun," Aurora admitted. Theresa started playing Aurora's solitaire game. "Oh, but sweetie, you don't know that for sure. Besides, it's up to you whether or not it'll be fun for you," Theresa said to her.  
Aurora thought about it; it made sense. "But what about Justin…?" she asked.  
"What about him?" Theresa asked.  
"He's probably still upset with me about the dance. I mean, I promised him I'd have fun while I'm here and I kind of broke it when I said I wouldn't go," she explained to Theresa.  
"Honey, I'm sure he'll forgive you if you went to the dance, apologize, and have fun," she assured Aurora. She handed Aurora her phone back, the cards began to bounce across the phone's screen. "Trust me." Aurora smiled. "I think your shift's over, mija," Theresa winked at her. Aurora walked around the counter and hugged Theresa. She ripped off her apron and ran up the stairs to the loft to get ready.

Later that evening, in the school gym, the dance had just started. Alex, Harper, Zeke, and Justin entered the gym and observed the environment. A handful of teens (girls mostly) dancing on the dance floor, a few people standing around in groups, people standing--by the wall (the wallflowers), and more people entering the gym. Max followed after them inside, he looked around and was acting like he was the coolest guy around.

"I can't wait until I get everyone to do the funky chicken," he said coolly. He shimmied toward the dance floor.

Justin shook his head. Alex rolled her eyes. Their younger brother, the odd one, as always. Alex looked around the room for Jason. She found him. She grabbed Harper's arm and commanded her to follow. Harper, dressed in a cupcake themed outfit, resisted at first because she wanted to be with Zeke but she was quick to give in the more Alex tugged. Justin and Zeke were left by the table with the punch bowl and snacks. They were already bored. Maybe Aurora did have the right idea in not going. Zeke turned to Justin and started to speak in the alien tongue with him.

"This is exciting," he said sarcastically, in alien.  
"Oh, yeah…" Justin replied, in alien.  
"Dude!" he exclaimed, normally. "Isn't that Aurora?" he asked, in alien-tongue again.

Justin turned around to look at the entrance. Zeke was right, Aurora had showed up. She waved shyly and walked up to the two. Aurora wore a red, gingham mini dress with black-print roses and skulls with top hats. Justin was surprised to see her there, in a dress, nonetheless. (Heh, a rhyme.) He waved back, as did Zeke.

"You two look like you're having fun," she said, trying to be sarcastic.  
Justin went along with her sarcasm. "Oh, yeah, loads. We might even join Max in starting the funky chicken."  
"Oh, cool, I can't wait," she smirked.

Harper walked up to the group, leaving Alex with Jason. She waved to Aurora and complimented on her dress. Aurora would've done the same, if she hadn't looked like the princess of cupcake land. Harper's dress was covered in various cupcake designs on a pink background and had beads, that looked like sprinkles, sown on to each cupcake.

"I thought you said you weren't coming?" Harper asked.  
"Me too…" Justin mumbled.  
Aurora elbowed him playfully, and she answered Harper, "Yeah, I thought so, too, but I promised myself I'd have fun. And here I am."

Justin looked down at his friend and smiled. At that moment, all was definitely forgiven between the two. The song in the gym changed and Harper clapped with excitement. She claimed it was her favorite song; she grabbed Zeke's hand and pulled him out to the dance floor. Justin and Aurora were left alone by the food. Justin motioned for them to sit down in a couple of chairs nearby and they did. Aurora kept looking out to the dance floor nervously.

"I'm glad you came," Justin said.  
Aurora turned to look at Justin, "Why?"  
"I normally don't have fun at dances either," he admitted.  
Aurora looked at him surprised, "Then why did you…?"  
He laughed, "I don't know…" He smiled softly. She couldn't help but smile also. "Well, I'm glad I'm here, too," Aurora said to Justin. She looked back at the dance floor. She felt really nervous….  
"Hey, I'm going to go use the men's room real quick, okay?" Justin stood up from his seat.  
"Oh, o-okay," she answered. Justin left Aurora and headed for the restrooms.

Meanwhile, Alex walked up to Harper and Zeke dancing. She looked angry. She stood next to the dancing couple and kept glancing back at Jason. Harper noticed her friend standing there.

"What's wrong, Alex?" Harper asked her as she bobbed her head to the beat.  
"It's Jason! He's shy! I kept asking him to dance with me, but he was hesitant to leave the wall--he's a wallflower, Harper!" Alex exclaimed to her friend.  
"Why don't you try to ease him into it? Make him feel more comfortable to be with you," Harper told her.  
"I've already tried that," Alex mumbled.  
"Really?" Harper asked, she placed her hands on her hips and swung them around to the song.  
"No… but I don't have all night to get him to be more outgoing-- Oh my god, that's it!" An idea popped into Alex's head.  
"What? Alex? I don't like face, Alex," Harper was worried. She leaned closer to her friend to whisper, "You're not going to use magic, are you?" Alex merely smirked. She walked away from sight. Harper tried to watch her, but Alex had disappeared from public sight.

"Wallflowers are really pretty and all, they should have a ball!"

All of a sudden, all the "wallflowers" at the dance left where they stood and swarmed to the dance floor and began to dance. Alex smirked widely and approached Jason and joined him in dancing. Aurora stood up as soon as she saw Justin walk back.

"Justin!" she exclaimed, she had felt a change in attitude in that second. "We should dance!" She laughed.  
He was surprised, "W-what?" Then he laughed nervously. He looked around the room. Something else was different besides Aurora's personality.  
"C'mon!" she grabbed his arm and dragged him to the dance floor.  
"Whoa, whoa! Hold on. Let me find Alex first," he said.  
"Why?" Aurora asked.  
"I think she did something here," he said with a tone of suspicion.  
"So what if she did? Everyone is having fun now!" she started shake her head to the music and proceeded to laugh. Justin laughed to at her out-of-character display.  
"Why are you laughing at me?" she asked, a little insecure now.  
"Nothing. I just don't see this side of you," he teased.  
"So what are you trying to say? You like this side of me better than my other side?" Aurora was becoming defensive.  
"No, no, not at all… I mean, it's nice but--" Justin couldn't think of a safe answer.  
"Whatever, let's go find Alex. Geeze…" Aurora scoffed.

They searched the dance floor for Alex. It was overfilled with students dancing. They even accidentally got into the middle of a mosh pit. When one guy bumped Aurora, she pushed him into his friends and continued walking through, laughing mischievously. Justin was cowardly dodging all the pushers. Eventually they found Alex, but not where they thought she would be. She was sitting in a chair away from the dance floor, pouting.

Justin approached his sister, "Alex! Did you use any magic to get the 'wallflowers' to come out of their shell and dance?"  
She pretended to think about it for a minute. "Ummm… Yeah. But that turned out to be a bust. I was dancing with Jason and he finally got the confidence to ask that cheerleader, Courtney, to dance with him," she said.  
"Well, then reverse the spell," Justin commanded.  
"I can't," Alex said. "I don't know how."

Justin rolled his eyes and tried to reverse the spell himself. It didn't work. The spell was too strong from the confident energy people were giving off. Aurora had an impish grin on her face and she taunted, "I know how to break it…" Aurora ran into the dance floor and in a matter of seconds, she was dragging Max toward their group. They didn't know where she was going with this.

"Max, dude, I think it's time to start the funky chicken dance, don't you?" she asked him. The other Russo's understand what was going on now. Max's face lit up with excitement and pride.  
"Alright! About time someone had a little confidence in me!" Alex laughed at this irony.  
"Must be his lucky day," Justin said sarcastically.

Max hopped on the stage, talked to the DJ. At first, the DJ gave him a weird look, but shrugged anyway and accepted Max's request. Max took center stage and called for everyone's attention.

"EVERYONE! Can I have your attention?!" cried a voice. Everyone turned their attention toward Max. Alex, "THE FUNKY CHICKEN!!!"

He bent his arms like a chicken and started to "flap" them around and bob his head like a chicken and twist his hips. Aurora grabbed Justin's arm and dragged him to the dance floor to do the funky chicken. Justin grabbed his sister's arm also. There was NO WAY she was going to get away with not embarrassing herself. Everyone under the spell did the dance without hesitation. Some of the other students just stared at them with weird looks and left the dance floor. One by one, the students doing the funky chicken felt less confident as they watched their friends and classmates leave the dance floor with disgusted looks. The spell wore off. Aurora began to realize what she was doing. She grew wide-eyed and red in the face. She felt humiliated. She bolted to leave the dance floor, but Justin, with one hand, stopped her and kept doing the funky chicken. She looked at him shyly. Justin started to sway and get really into it as he kept going. Aurora laughed. She knew what he was trying to do. Aurora continued doing the funky chicken next to him and he started flapping around like a chicken around her. She couldn't stop laughing at him. It was obvious he was trying to help her have fun. Even Alex dedicated herself to the dance and got Harper and Zeke to join them.

After the dance, the walked back to the Waverly Substation laughing. They had fun even if they did look like dorks doing the funky chicken. And Max was right, it was the highlight of the dance. Problem was, Max couldn't stop doing the funky chicken on the way home. He was determined to get anyone he came across to do it. Justin hugged Aurora with one arm around her shoulder.

"You had fun?" he asked her.

"Oddly enough... Yes, I did," she laughed. "I'm glad I have you for a friend, Justin. If you weren't such a dork, I wouldn't have fun." Justin raised his eyebrow at her comment and shook his head. "You know what I mean... Thank you," Aurora added.  
"You're welcome," he smiled.

* * *

Kitten: Still working on Chapter 9.


	9. Misguided Ghosts

Aurora returned to the Russo household through the wizard portal. She went back to her home for Halloween and partially for _Dia De Los Muertos_ (day of the dead) in honor of her mother. Her father wasn't Hispanic, but he carried out some of the traditions in respect of his deceased wife. They even had an alter dedicated to her memory every year, during this holiday, in their family's apartment.

She would've stayed to celebrate the rest of the holiday, but she didn't feel like celebrating the entire _dia de los muertos_ activities this year. After her long absence from home, her brother made sure to make her stay more of a pain than usual. She had a couple of welts on her back, legs, and her arms. Thankfully, her father would come back home in time to keep Spike from continuing her torture.

Aurora had missed San Francisco. She revisited her favorite places like Pier 39, Japan town, Market St., a few of her favorite parks, and the bay's beach. It was a weird time to visit those places because it was Halloween, but she didn't care. She was home for those two days and it was refreshing.

Aurora entered the loft and found the Russo's celebrating Day of the Dead as well. They had an alter for Theresa's father, Arturo Larkin. The alter had a pillow, flowers, plates of Mexican-styled dishes like tamales, toquitos, and enchiladas. Theresa placed another plate of enchiladas down by her father's alter. Alex and Max came down the stairs and saw the plates.

"Ooh! Enchiladas!" Max exclaimed. The two ran towards the plates, but Theresa was quick to stop them and slapped their hands.  
"No, no, no! Those aren't for you! They're for your grandfather!" she scorned.  
"He can't eat all of that!" Alex whined. "He's dead!" Max nodded his head agreeing. His mouth was watering for the enchiladas. Theresa placed her hands on her hips and glared at Alex.  
"Alex, it's tradition to lay out food and drinks for the dead after their long journey to visit the living," Theresa told Alex condescendingly. Alex rolled her eyes and sighed.  
"Grandpa's greedy even when he's dead," she mumbled.

Alex saw Aurora standing in the doorway. She waved and greeted her as she flopped down on the couch. Max greeted Aurora also. Theresa looked over at Aurora and checked her watch.

"Aurora! What are you doing back so soon?"  
"Just felt like cutting my visit short," she said while looking around the room. "Where's Justin?"  
"Hanging out with Juliet," Alex answered. Alex grabbed a bowl of chips and consumed them one by one. She turned to her mother, still eating the chips. "These aren't for grandpa, right?" she asked sarcastically. Theresa shook her head and rolled her eyes at her daughter. Jerry came down the stairs and saw Aurora.

"Aurora? What are you doing home so early?"  
"Geeze, dad. Way to make her sound unwanted. First, mom--now, you," Alex teased.  
"Alex, don't say that!" Jerry hissed. "You're wanted here, Aurora. Trust me." He reassured her. Aurora nodded in understanding. "So how was your visit? Is your father, Brandon, doing good?" Jerry sat down in the armchair next to the couch.  
"Yes, he is," Aurora answered Jerry.  
"Well, that's good. Is your dad still in the music business?"  
"Yes, he finally started his own record label. It's small but it should do well because he only seeks the best local bands in the area."  
"Wow. That's good to hear," Jerry commented.  
"Whoa, whoa!" Alex exclaimed abruptly. "Your dad owns a record label?"  
"It's just a minor label," Aurora explained, "It's nothing big."  
"Yeah, but it's still a record label!" Alex exclaimed. "Ask him if he's looking for a female drummer to sign under his label."

Jerry shook his head. Aurora just stared at Alex unsure. Was she serious? Max tapped Alex on the shoulder and motioned her to follow him into the lair. Alex excused herself to go to the lair; Aurora stopped the two siblings before they left the room.

"I brought back some souvenirs from San Francisco for everyone," Aurora said.

She dropped her enchanted backpack and unzipped it. She pulled out a crazy (furry) top hat for Max, a cable car model for Jerry, a stuffed shark for Alex (which she flung out of her bag because it scared Aurora), and a knock-off Prada bag for Theresa. Theresa took the purse and thanked her.

"I already have five knock-offs--this one is cute though!"

Aurora also pulled out a t-shirt she got for Justin from Lefty's Left Hand Store that said "I may be left-handed, but I'm always right." Since Justin wasn't present, she had put it away to give it to him later. They thanked her for the gifts. Alex, once again, excused herself (with Max and his crazy hat) to go to the lair. In the lair, Max opened the wizard portal and started walking through it. Alex stopped him, curious as to why they were going to enter the portal.

"Max, why are we going through the wizard portal?"  
"To go to the ghost district to find grandpa!" Max exclaimed. This confused Alex.  
"Why?" she asked.  
"Don't you want to know if he really wants all those enchiladas? I mean, c'mon, one ghost can't eat that much. And more importantly, one ghost can't eat at all!" Alex thought about it. Max had an interesting point--for once.  
"You know what? Let's go," she said. The two entered the portal.

In the ghost district, it took them awhile to find the exact cemetery where their grandfather had been buried. They asked around for Arturo Larkin until they finally found him. He was a bit elderly, Latin, and he couldn't have been over seventy years old. He had noticeably dark hair that faded to gray or white at the roots and tanned, wrinkly, ghost skin.

"Is that you, Alexandra? Maximillian?" asked the old man.  
"Grandpa!" Max exclaimed.

Max tried to hug his grandfather, but he fell forward and hit the ground as he went through his transparent grandfather. Alex smacked her forehead. Their grandfather merely stood there and watched his fallen grandson pick himself up.

"Why are you here?" he asked the two.  
"_Dia de los muertos_... we're going to bring you to our home to celebrate (so the enchiladas don't go bad)," she said, mumbling the last part.  
"Oh! How nice of you two!" he exclaimed happily. "Let's go then! We don't want to keep your mother waiting! Oh, and did I tell you about the time when your mother was born? And the leaky roof?" he started.  
"Yes, yes! We heard!" Alex exclaimed irately. She heard the story before at "her" quinceanera. Before they left, a woman's voice called after them.

"Wait!"

They turned to look at the woman. Even as a ghost, woman had noticeably fair colored skin. She looked fairly young, possibly in her mid-thirties. She had messy dark hair, in dreadlocks, tied back in a ponytail. It was an unusual hairstyle but she pulled it off. She wore a leather jacket over a black dress shirt, dark blue jeans with holes and rips at her knees and thighs. She even wore a silver locket around her neck and a few rings on her fingers, including a wedding ring. The woman appeared to be nice; she definitely had that presence about her. The woman looked familiar to Alex. Max, on the other hand, was oblivious to the resemblance.

"Who are you?" Alex asked cautiously.

Back at the Sub Station, Aurora helped Jerry and Theresa out in the restaurant. She bused a few tables and carried out the orders with Mrs. Russo while Jerry was in the kitchen making sandwiches and admiring his cable car model in between orders. Theresa popped her head through the window between the kitchen and the restaurant, reminding her husband about the orders she's been waiting on. At that moment, Justin dashed into the Substation, not making any eye contact with anyone, and headed straight up to the loft. Jerry saw the blur that was his son and looked at Theresa. Theresa looked at Aurora and Aurora looked at Jerry. They didn't know what was going on with Justin. The three were concerned for him but it had to wait because they were all too busy in the shop.

Alex peeked her head out from the lair. She looked around cautiously for any sign of her parents. It wasn't often that ghosts came in to their home (except that one time at Halloween). In fact, it was the first time she was bringing home their grandfather for _dia de los muertos_. Every year their mother would say, "You can't eat that! That's for your grandfather!" But he was never actually present to eat any of the food that was laid out for him, so why not bring him from the ghost district through the portal to "eat" his feast.

Her father was in the kitchen but he looked pretty distracted from making sandwiches and playing with his cable car model. She proceed to take the lead and snuck out of the lair. Following her was Max, Grandpa Arturo, and the ghostly-woman. Jerry started to shiver due to the cold air the ghosts were giving off.

"Who turned on the A.C.?" he asked himself.

The four quietly rushed out of the kitchen before Jerry turned around. In the restaurant, Aurora and Theresa were busy helping customers. Alex signaled the trio to hurry up as she led them up the stairs. The four climbed up the stairs. Before they made it up the stairs completely, Aurora had turned around and briefly saw the ghostly-woman's back. She blinked and stared back at the stairs to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Nobody was there anymore. This made Aurora very curious, however, she could not stop while she was working to find out what was going on.

Upstairs in the loft, Justin sat in the couch, arms and legs crossed, and his legs resting on the coffee table. He made it obvious that he was in a bad mood. Alex and Max entered the loft and found their brother on the couch. Alex was quick to try and distract Justin while Max went back out into the hall way to bring the ghosts inside. Alex engaged herself in a casual conversation with Justin.

"What's up, Justin?" Alex asked him, pretending to be casual.  
"Nothing," he snapped.  
"Whoa! Calm down, snappy the snapping turtle," Alex joked. Justin glared at Alex. It was plain to see that something was upsetting him. "Alright, someone's upset…" Alex became more serious now and forgot about Max and the two ghosts. "What's wrong, Justin?" she asked concerning.  
"It's Juliet," he started. "She..." From the corner of his eye he saw movement. He looked up and saw Max and the two ghosts following him. Justin instantly recognized one of the ghosts. "Grandpa?"  
"_Hola_, Justin!" his grandfather greeted. Justin then looked at the woman ghost.  
"Who is that?" he asked.  
"A hitch-hiker…" Alex said slowly, not sure if she should tell Justin. Aurora, on her break, walked in.  
"Justin, are you--" she was about to ask Justin if he was okay until she noticed the woman she thought she saw on the stairs in the Sub Station. Aurora became surprised. "What are you doing here?" she asked the woman. The woman smiled softly at Aurora.  
"Aurora, I wanted to see you," the woman said.  
"But dad and Spike..."  
"I was visiting our home and I noticed you weren't there! I saw Spike and your father... And I asked your father about where you were and he told me everything," the woman explained.  
"Mom..." Aurora said quietly.  
"Mom?!" Justin sounded surprised. He turned to Alex for an explanation. Alex looked away pretending she didn't know anything. "Alex…?" Justin had to know what was going on.  
Alex sighed, "Max and I went to the ghost district to get grandpa (for reasons we will not say). And before we left, Aurora's mom-- Adeline-- asked if we could bring her here to see Aurora."  
Adeline spoke, "Every year on _dia de los muertos_, I've been visiting my family since my passing." Adeline tilted her head at her daughter. "Oh, Aurora," she said sincerely, "I just didn't want to go on a year without seeing you."

Aurora's eyes watered. Assuming that her father told her mother everything about her brother, she pulled the sleeve of her sweater to reveal a burn on her arm that Spike had given her recently. Alex and Justin's eyes grew wide with shock and worry. Max merely winced, imagining how much that would've hurt. They didn't think the rivalry between the Rose siblings went that far.

"Spike's horrible, mom," she whimpered.

Adeline attempted to hug Aurora but she phased through. She readjusted herself trying to make the hug work despite her transparency. Adeline even tried to pet Aurora's head. Aurora couldn't feel a thing. She only felt the cold from her mother's ghostly-being. Her mother tried to comfort her.

"I'm sorry, honey…"

Aurora dried her tears with her other sleeve and pulled down the sleeve to cover the burn again. Aurora tried to calm herself down. The two began to converse with one another about Aurora's time with the Russos. Grandpa Arturo leaned over to Justin and whispered to him.

"Is that your girlfriend, Pepe? She's very pretty." He winked at Justin. ("Pepe" being Justin's middle name.) Justin's eyes grew wide and he nervously denied it.  
"Grandpa, I already have a girlfriend..." then he muttered to himself, "HAD a girlfriend." Alex overheard.  
"Is that what happened?!" she whispered loudly. Aurora overheard Alex. She didn't catch the conversation.  
"What happened?" Aurora asked, looking over her transparent mother's shoulder.  
"N-nothing," Justin lied.

Justin got up from the couch and went up to his room. Aurora looked up at her mother as if she were asking her permission to leave. Adeline nodded her head, excusing her daughter. Aurora followed after Justin to his room. Adeline smiled softly to herself. She noticed how concerned Aurora was for Justin. Jerry walked into the loft, looking for Aurora because her break had ended then he saw the ghostly Adeline.

"Hello, Jerry," Adeline greeted.  
"Adeline? What are you--" he began to ask then turned his attention to Alex. He knew she had something to do with this "Alex…?" he asked scornfully. Alex explained briefly about her (and Max's) intentions in bringing their grandfather to visit.  
"Then Aurora's mom found us before we left and asked if we could bring her back with us," she finished explaining.  
"Well, that was very kind of you to do that for Adeline… and Aurora," Jerry said. "But your mother is going to freak out when she sees her father's ghost here!"  
"I know, but wouldn't she be happy?" Alex asked her father. Jerry wasn't sure if he should argue it. Alex probably did have a point--a risky point.

Upstairs, in Justin's room, Justin flipped through a few magical books to keep himself busy. Aurora walked in quietly. She really didn't want to interrupt him but she wanted to know why was he so angry. If she could recall correctly, Justin was hanging out with Juliet. Did they get into a fight? She wasn't sure… Aurora didn't like seeing Justin upset.

"Justin?" Aurora asked. Justin didn't turn to look at her.  
"What?" he asked sharply. By his tone, she could tell he was upset.  
"Is… is everything okay?" she asked carefully. Justin paused as if he was debating within himself whether he should truthfully answer or not, then he continued with what he was doing.  
He had let out a harsh sigh, "No…"  
"What's wrong?" Aurora asked and took a seat on his bed.  
He snapped, "I don't want to talk about it!"  
Taken back by his angry reply, she apologized quietly, "Sorry…"

She didn't know what to do now for her friend. He didn't want to talk about what was wrong and that made her feel helpless. Aurora stood up to leave to the room. She figured she'd give him his space, but Justin changed the topic and began making conversation with her.

"That woman really is your mother, huh?" he asked, his tone growing softer.  
"Yeah, she is," she answered.  
"You can really see a resemblance."

Justin finally looked away from his books to face her. Aurora tried to smile, unsure if she should, but Justin didn't seem to mind. He slightly smiled back making her a little bit comfortable. She nodded and stared down at the floor.

"I get that a lot," Aurora stated. "Well, from the people who've seen her anyways…"

Aurora then looked down at her rose pendant which hung on a jeweled necklace around her neck. Her brother, Spike, also has a pendant similar to her own. Like Aurora's, it was a rose, but tethered on to a thick leather necklace strand around his neck. The pendants were odd trinkets that Justin had never heard or seen before. Aurora had explained to him once that it shows the balance of both Aurora's and Spike's magic.

If the rose petals on the pendants were more black than white, that meant Spike was ahead in his wizard training than Aurora, and vice-versa. As of right now, the rose's more than half black while the rest of the petals were white. It made Aurora anxious when she'd see the number of black petals overwhelming the rose pendant.

Justin wondered why his family didn't have magical pendants, yet then again, it wasn't necessary since it was obvious that Justin was in the lead for the wizard competition. Aurora claimed the rose pendant was just family tradition; it's to keep the competitiveness going between siblings. But to Aurora's dismay, her brother was very competitive.

Aurora looked up at Justin with worry, "I hope I win… I want it more than anything. If I don't become a full wizard, my brother would go out of control with my family's magic." Justin let out a small smirk across his face. She sounded a bit like himself in wanting to win her family's magic.  
"You'll do fine," Justin reassured her. He then smiled weakly.

It was obvious to Aurora that other things were on his mind. She had to do something… She suddenly remembered. Aurora stood up again and climbed up the attic ladder to her room. She dragged her enchanted backpack out of her room and dropped it down on the floor below her. Aurora climbed back down and proceeded to search her bag. She pulled out the lefty t-shirt and tossed it at Justin. Aurora smiled widely, confident that it would cheer him up. Justin examined the shirt and read it out loud.

"I may be left-handed, but I'm always right," he laughed and pulled the shirt over the one he was already wearing. He looked in his bedroom mirror, modeled the shirt, and turned around to face Aurora. "Thanks, Aurora! That really cheered me up."  
"You're welcome," she said smiling. "I got it for you while I was in San Francisco. They had a store on Pier 39 dedicated to left-handed tools and souvenirs." Justin laughed again, and he began staring directly into Aurora's eyes.

There was always something about Aurora that he liked. He found himself admiring Aurora, not only for her physical features like her smile, dark hair, and brown eyes, but for the kind of girl Aurora is. Despite what she has been through, Aurora has found ways to make an effort since she has been living with his family. She was strong for putting up with her brother for a long time until she was offered a better place to be. It hadn't crossed his mind before but he had found that he really liked her--possibly as more than a friend. Justin also didn't realize how long he'd been staring at Aurora. Oh, how awkward it must've been.

Justin broke away from his train of thought, laughing nervously. Aurora blushed and looked away while laughing nervously, too. She slightly embarrassed; however, she looked back at him again with a smile across her face. The smile then went away when a scream could be heard from the loft. The scream sounded like Justin's mom. The two left Justin's room to see what had just happened.

"What's the matter mom? You act like you've just seen a ghost," Alex teased. Max laughed.  
"Oh my goodness! What is my father doing here?" asked Theresa, still shocked.  
"Theresa!" her father greeted. "_Mija. soy su padre_"  
"_Yo se quien eres_" Theresa exclaimed in Spanish. "I want to know why you're here!"  
"Whoa," Alex said. "That was too much Spanish for me." Theresa raised an eyebrow at Alex. "I'm sorry…" She squinted her eyes as if she was trying to remember something. She began her attempt in speaking Spanish. "Way too _mucho espanol_ for _mi_?" Her mother grew agitated with Alex's behavior. Theresa placed her hands on her hips and glared at Alex.  
"Did you bring your grandfather to our home from the ghost district?" Alex tried to think of an excuse.  
"It was Max's idea!" She pointed at Max.

Max, trying to deny it, shook his head. The two siblings were fearful of their mother. Theresa's glare was fixed on Max. As she approached her younger son, her expression softened.

She cooed, "Thank you, Maxy!" The siblings were surprised to see how well their mother was taking this surprise. Max soaked in the appreciation while Alex felt the need to reclaim some of the credit.  
"Hey! I helped him find grandpa!" Alex whined.

Theresa extended an arm around Alex and thanked her as well. She may not like her children being wizards, it did have it's perks from time to time. This day in particular was one of those days. Theresa's eyes welled up with happiness at the sight of her father. She released her children and walked over to her ghostly father.

"Dad, you must be hungry," Theresa said to her father. She walked over to the kitchen to warm up his food. Grandpa Arturo rubbed his stomach.  
"Oh, yes, I am starving! I could eat a burro!"

Justin and Aurora reached the bottom of the stairs. Justin asked if everything was okay. Alex confirmed him and briefly explained what had happened. Aurora walked over to the couch where her mom was sitting. Theresa didn't see Adeline sitting there. She asked what was going on. Adeline stood up, walked over to the kitchen, and kindly introduced herself as Aurora's mother. Theresa found this fact surprising because she had never met Aurora's mother before.

"So you're Aurora's mother? Wow! I see the resemblance!" Theresa commented. Adeline thanked her. "Well, let me tell you that it has been delightful to have Aurora around," Theresa said graciously to Adeline.  
"I'm glad to hear. And from what she's told me (and from what I've observed) she has grown **fondly** of living here with your family," Adeline stated, emphasizing the word "_fondly_."

Adeline was implying her daughter's obvious feelings for a member of their family. Theresa didn't understand what Adeline was hinting at. Adeline looked back at her daughter and her friend, Justin. Aurora watched Justin as he dusted and tugged his new t-shirt. Theresa looked over at the two also.

Justin and Aurora have gotten along quite nicely since she's moved in. It was becoming more apparent as of recently that the two definitely had a bond. Theresa's eyes grew wide now that she could finally see it. She looked at Adeline, and Adeline looked back at her with a knowing smirk on her face.

There was no doubt about it, Theresa thought. But what about Juliet? Theresa was sure that Justin was with Juliet. She didn't know what to think. She always saw her son and Aurora as just friends, but now that Adeline has shone the light on this perspective… Theresa shrugged it off. Adeline laughed lightly.

"I probably shouldn't have said anything, Theresa. I didn't mean to make you worry," Adeline said.  
"No, no, it's ok…" Theresa assured Adeline.

At that moment, Justin took Alex's stuffed shark and began to wave it in front of Aurora's face. She cringed in fear and insisted that Justin should stop teasing her about her fear of sharks. Aurora talked on about how she had to close her eyes the entire time she was purchasing the stuffed shark. Justin laughed and told her she was weird for having a "fear of sharks," then Alex brought up Justin's odd fear of clowns.

"They're just creepy with the smiling and the laughing with the paint!" Justin said terrified. Alex and Aurora laughed at Justin. Then he flung the shark at Aurora and she flailed around scared.  
"That's not funny!" she squealed. Theresa looked back at Adeline.  
"You know, she'd probably be the closest thing Justin would have to having a normal girlfriend--for being a wizard," Theresa said. She was convincing herself about the possibility. "But Justin's dating this vampire girl and they're pretty close. I don't know…. If they're meant to be, then they're meant to be. If it happens, good for them." Adeline nodded. "Oh, but then we'd have to relocate Aurora's room…" Theresa thought out loud. She shrugged again, "I probably shouldn't worry. It's not even happening right now!" Adeline laughed. She can tell that Theresa was over thinking the relationship.

Hours passed and it was dinner time. The Russos, Aurora, Adeline, and Grandpa Arturo gathered at the dinner table. Theresa placed the food she had prepared for her father before him. Grandpa Arturo took the food and devoured it all in one swallow. Alex and Max's jaws dropped. Their plan to eat their grandfather's feast failed. Adeline didn't eat anything. She claimed she'd already eaten back home at her husband's apartment. Remembering the meal she had, Adeline thanked Aurora for the delicious nachos she made for her.

"I'm just glad you got to eat it in time before the cheese went bad," Aurora admitted.  
Adeline laughed, "I used to tell you to check the expiration date!" Aurora laughed also and stared down at her food.

The words _"used to…"_ echoed in her head. She sighed; then she smiled weakly. Even if she was able to see her mother once a year, she still missed having her mother around. Aurora was almost certain that if the accident didn't happen, Spike would've turned out differently. Aurora didn't want to dwell on the thought anymore. Things happen for a reason, she told herself. She was sure of it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have met the Russos. Maybe she would have, just not under the conditions she has met them.

Adeline checked for the time. "Oh, boy… time does fly." It was a quarter 'til midnight.  
"Do you have to leave?" Alex asked Adeline.  
Aurora answered for her mother, "At the end of the day of the dead celebration, the spirits return to the afterlife to rest until their next visit to the living world."  
"Yes, and it's almost midnight," Adeline said. She stood up and turned to the elderly ghost, "Arturo, would you like me to escort you home?"  
"No, it's quite alright," he said. "Would you like me to escort you?" he asked her instead. Adeline chuckled.  
"That would be nice. Thank you." Adeline paused and faced Aurora. "But I can't leave without a song…" Aurora looked up at her mother. Everyone was curious.  
"What song?" Justin asked, interested.  
"Every year, Aurora would play me a song before I'd leave on dia de los muertos," Adeline explained. "It's always something different on her acoustic guitar and she'd do the vocals…" Aurora coughed as she became noticeably embarrassed.  
"I don't have my guitar…" Aurora said.  
"Oh, you can borrow my guitar, _mija_!" Theresa said cheerfully.

They all wanted to hear this song Aurora had to share. Theresa got up from her seat at the dinner table and ran up to her bedroom to grab her guitar. No sense in trying to fight it when everyone demanded to hear her perform, Aurora thought. Jerry declared that everyone should go downstairs to watch Aurora perform. So they did except Aurora and Adeline. They stayed behind in the loft for a moment.

"Mom, why'd you have to tell them about the songs and the singing?" Aurora groaned.  
"Aurora," Adeline started, "you're a special girl with a lot of potential. There's no shame in sharing your gifts to the ones close to you."  
"I guess," Aurora said, staring at her feet.  
"And Aurora…" Adeline started again. Aurora looked up her mother, curious about what she might say. "Justin's a special boy, too. And a special boy like him is hard to come by and is easy to lose if the opportunity is lost."  
"We're just friends, mom…" she told her mother.  
"You say that, but your heart says different. I know," she winked. Aurora blushed and walked away. Her mother following her.

Downstairs in the substation, the tables were cleared out so there was a single chair in the center of the restaurant. Theresa came down the stairs with her old guitar from when she used to be in a mariachi band. She handed it to Aurora. Aurora sat down in the chair and strummed the guitar. She cringed as she heard the strings play out of tune.

"It's way out of tune!" she told Theresa.

She sat there for about a minute, tuning the guitar by ear and humming each of the strings' keys. She strummed the guitar again and it was in tune. Aurora took a deep breath and looked up at her and friends. Justin, Alex, and Max sitting on the stools in front of the counter and Jerry, Theresa, Adeline, and Arturo stood behind the counter. Her mother smiled softly and Justin watched intrigued. She took another breath and counted down "1, 2, 3, 4..." Her fingers moved down the neck of the guitar in between frets as she plucked the strings with a guitar pick. After seconds of playing the intro, she opened her mouth to sing softly.

"_I'm going away for a while  
But I'll be back  
Don't try to follow me  
'Cause I'll return as soon as possible  
See, I'm trying to find my place  
But it might not be here where I feel safe  
We all learn to make mistakes  
And run from them, from them  
With no direction  
We'll run from them, from them  
With no conviction  
'Cause I'm just one of those ghosts  
Travelin' endlessly  
Don't need no roads  
In fact, they follow me  
And we just go in circles_"

Adeline swayed lightly to the music. Justin was impressed. He even got chills up his spine. He had never heard Aurora play or sing before in the time that she has been living with his family.

_"And now I'm told that this is life  
That pain is just a simple compromise  
So we can get what we want out of it  
Would someone care to classify?  
A broken heart and some twisted minds  
So I can find someone to rely on_"

Aurora glanced up at Justin briefly and looked back at the guitar. He smiled softly.

"_And run to them, to them  
Full speed ahead_"

At the mention of that line, Adeline placed a comforting hand on Justin's shoulder. Oddly enough, he could feel it. Her hand didn't feel cold or ghostly. It had felt warm and solid. He looked up at the woman, and she smiled warmly at Justin. He smiled back and continued watching Aurora's performance.

"_Oh, you are not useless  
We are just  
Misguided ghosts  
Travelin' endlessly  
The ones we trusted the most  
Pushed us far away  
And there's no one road  
We should not be the same  
But I'm just a ghost  
And still they echo me  
They echo me in circles…_"

She finished with a soft strum. The Russos clapped for Aurora and she set the guitar down leaning against the chair. Even if she received positive responses from her friends, she still felt timidly about her performance.

"Aurora! That was really good," Alex complimented.  
"Yeah, you were great," Justin added. She thanked them shyly. Aurora walked over to her mother to say one last good bye.  
"I loved the song, Aurora," Adeline told her sincerely.  
"I'm glad you did, mom."

Adeline lifted her daughter's rose pendant and examined it. The rose continued to display dark rose petals. Aurora sighed. She smiled at her daughter.  
"Aurora," she said softly. "I have complete confidence in you. I am sure you will win the family's wizard competition and set your brother straight." Aurora nodded her head. Those were the words she wanted to hear all along.  
"I'll never be as good as you though," Aurora said. Adeline let out a soft laugh and shook her head.  
"No, you'll be great…" she planted a kiss on her daughter's forehead. She pulled away and stared at her daughter. "Before I leave, I want you to repeat this spell for me: _What once belonged to my mother now belongs to her daughter._" Aurora pulled out her wand and held it out toward her mother.

_"What once belonged to my mother, now belongs to her daughter."_

In that instant, the leather jacket her mother was wearing disappeared and reappeared on Aurora. Aurora examined the leather jacket that had appeared on her body.

"Mom! It's your leather jacket!" Aurora said surprised.  
"Cool!" exclaimed Max.  
"I want you to have it, Aurora," Adeline told her. "I would've given it to you sooner, but you know how Spike is. Plus, I have no use for it where I'm going." Aurora wanted to give her mother a hug, but she knew she'd phase through if she try.  
"Oh my god! I really want to hug you right now," Aurora said, crying.  
Adeline laughed softly, "I love you, Aurora. Don't you forget that." Aurora attempted to hug her anyhow. Adeline smiled and did the same. They shared a hollow hug, but it meant so much.  
"Love you, too, mom," Aurora replied. The two parted.  
"Bye, kiddo…" Adeline waved and started heading towards the lair.

Jerry escorted them to the wizard portal and watched his father-in-law and Adeline leave. Aurora sniffled and examined the leather jacket. She even sniffed it; it smelled like her mother's perfume before she passed away. Justin walked up to Aurora.

"Looks good on you," he said. "You look like a rock star."  
Aurora laughed a little, "Thanks."  
"So your mother was a wizard, too?" Justin asked.  
"She was a great wizard. I hope I'll be just a great." Justin approached Aurora and hugged her.  
"You will be, and I'll--" then he corrected himself. "_We'll_ help you get there."

* * *

Kitten: Oh boy, long chapter. Took me long enough.... The song I used is called "Misguided Ghosts" by Paramore (I do not own it). It's very nice song, I thought it was suitable. Please review. Comments encourage me to fail in class and work extra hard in putting up a new chapter. Thank you.


	10. Her Story

Aurora Gloria Rose is a quiet, shy, and reserved girl and (older) twin sister to Spike Rose, who is a vindictive, cynical, and mischievous brother. Aurora was pretty certain that her brother wouldn't have turned out that way if that fateful accident didn't occur. The accident that took their mother's life….

When the twins were 8 years old, they stayed at home with their mother, Adeline, while their father, Brandon, was away touring with his band out of town. It seemed like peaceful day in their home in the hills of San Francisco, until a very large earthquake hit. Objects were falling off their shelves, and standing in place became dizzying. The children panicked while Adeline tried to remain calm for the safety of her children.

In case of earthquakes, you're supposed to take cover under a surface (like a desk or table) or by a door. And that was what Adeline did. She carried Aurora and dragged Spike by the hand towards the door. When they finally reached the door, Adeline held them close to her. Aurora, on the other hand, panicked about her favorite teddy bear being left behind.

"My bear!" the little girl cried. "I have to get my bear!"  
"Aurora, it's OK!" Adeline tried to convince her. "Your bear will be fine!"

Aurora escaped her mother's grasp and ran out from safety to fetch her teddy bear in her room. Adeline tried to call her back to the door.

"Aurora!" she called after her.

But it was no use. Aurora had run too quickly, past the falling objects, towards her room. Adeline couldn't sit back and wait for her to return. She told Spike to stay by the door (no matter what) and ran after Aurora. In Aurora's room, Aurora searched frantically for her teddy bear as the ground below her continued to shake. Aurora had to get her teddy bear because it was her first teddy bear, made by her mother, when Aurora was born. It had a lot of sentimental value to her and she'd be upset to lose it. She finally found the bear underneath her bed and made her way back to where she left her mother and brother.

On her way, Aurora ran into her mother. Adeline grabbed onto Aurora's hand and started running back towards the door. They were close to the door when Adeline heard the roof crumbling, followed by a loud crack, above them. The roof wasn't just crumbling; it was going to cave in above herself and Aurora. Rather than just letting it fall on them both, Adeline made the greatest sacrifice as a mother and as a human being. She shoved Aurora towards the door and into her brother. Aurora looked behind her and all she could see was the roof, piled up in rubble and broken beams of wood, where her mother was standing. She was certain her mother was underneath that massive pile. Aurora cried for her mother, as did Spike, hoping she'd magically make it out of the wreckage; there was no sign from her.

Several days later, Spike felt that the accident was Aurora's fault. If she hadn't been so childish and ran back for her teddy bear, her mother would have been around. Aurora even believed it. She was so convinced that it was her fault until the first dia de los muertos visit from her mother's spirit. Adeline assured her that it was not her fault, and she explained that she did what any mother would do to save their child from harm. This bit of information eased Aurora's heart and mind, but she couldn't help but wonder why her mother didn't use magic... Maybe, in all the panic, it had slipped her mind. Aurora felt sad for his father. Like Aurora, her father regretted his absence that dreadful day. Brandon wished he was there to help-- to prevent it maybe… something.

Brandon stayed at home more often after the accident. He stopped touring for 3 years because he was so devastated by his wife's death. She was his best friend, his number one fan, his everything. It took him a long time to heal, but he would have to try to be strong for his children. He'd vent his emotions and dwelled deeper into music to get over his loss. It helped, but he'd remember her smile and beauty whenever he played the songs he had written about her. When he did finally get back to touring, his band mates' girlfriends, or wives, would watch over the twins while Brandon toured with the band. However, the touring was cut short when the twins turned 12 and their magic came in. It was his duty, as their father to start their wizard training.

The night when their magic came in, Aurora made the shows on the television speak in various different languages, and Spike made the lights flicker on and off. Rev's (Brandon's drummer) girlfriend grew very frustrated that evening. She was thought the electric and cable companies were conspiring against her because her neighbors were not experiencing the same phenomenon. She never suspected the children to be capable of having magic. Aurora hid in the bathroom (to keep her magic hidden) until her father would come back to pick them up, but her brother stayed out and enjoyed the insanity. That was the night Spike realized he could finally get back at Aurora for what happened to their mother. However, Spike knew he couldn't do it right away, for he had to learn how to control his magic. That's when it all started….

Brandon began setting up a room in their apartment for their magical studies. They had moved away from their old home in the hills of San Francisco into an apartment in the city several years ago since the accident. Brandon turned the coat closet into a lair and the family walked inside. Upon observation, there were magical objects, book of spells, candles, crystal balls, cauldrons, vials, and magical ingredients on shelves. The items in the room were Brandon's and Adeline's magical belongings.

Brandon walked over to a box on a shelf and wiped the dust off of it. On the box, "Rose" was engraved into its wooden body. He opened the latch and pulled out two rose pendants. He waved his wand over the pendants and the floated out of the box towards the twins. Glowing rings formed around their necks, the pendants placed themselves on the rings, and rings turned into necklaces to hold the pendants. The rose pendants changed from a stone gray color to black-and-white displaying equally on both sides of the rose. Aurora asked why they had to wear the pendants during their magic training. Then Brandon explained:

"It's the Rose family tradition to wear these pendants to keep the Rose siblings on their toes. The pendants will change color, reflecting the other siblings' chances at winning the family competition (you already know about what that is), and the other sibling will have no choice but to try harder in their magical studies. Our family has been doing it for generations, except your great, great grandfather--he was an only child."

He continued explaining how their magical training will go and how they will start their first lesson today. Brandon plans on teaching them the spell to transform objects. _"This (person or thing) is now not, a(n) (object or person) should fill its slot."_ He handed them both wands that he had bought for them and showed them how the spell worked on an orange.

_ "This orange is now not, a vinyl record should fill its slot."_

The orange turned into a vinyl record.

"Now, you try, Aurora," Brandon said.

Aurora waved her wand.

_"This vinyl record is now not, a lollipop should fill its slot."  
_  
The vinyl record successfully turned into a lollipop. It was Spike's turn.

_"This lollipop is now a not, a tarantula should fill its slot."_

The lollipop grew eight legs, but did not turn into a tarantula like Spike wanted. To Aurora's relief, she was glad he didn't succeed. She feared the big, hairy spiders. However, Spike was not pleased. He did not like the fact that his sister got the spell right on the first try. If this was how magic training was going to be, Spike wanted to make sure that he'd be the one excelling; not Aurora. So it began…

After a few magic lessons, Spike started manipulating the magic lessons. He'd interfere by using a spell to counter or change whatever spell Aurora would cast. When it came to potions, he'd slip in an extra ingredient to Aurora's potions. He did anything to keep her beneath him in wizard training. For awhile, the rose pendants displayed a dark color, meaning that Spike was doing well in his training until one day it was more white than black. Spike knew instantly that Aurora was training outside of magical studies. This pushed him to do his worse.

Spike examined the books in their family's lair to find torturous spells. He found a cinder spell (a spell that burns a victim), a migraine spell (gives victim a severe headache), and the shock spell (to send volts of electricity through a victim's body). His instant favorite became the shock spell upon reading it, but that was a spell he was going to save for a more appropriate time. Spike used the migraine spell for now so Aurora would have a hard time studying. It worked for awhile; she'd go to school with these painful headaches that prevented her from focusing. She went on with the pain until she used a spell to make it go away.

Aurora continued her studies after she had cured her headaches. She would've continued until Spike finally confronted her. He stormed into her room. Spike was so frustrated and wild; it was as if all that anger he had against her since their mother's death had been unleashed. That's when he decided to be more direct about torturing her. She tried to calm him down, but that's when he used the shock spell.

_ "Eetselectrifyus!"_

Volts of electricity coursed through her body and she was left paralyzed on her bedroom floor. He walked out with an evil gratifying look on his face. He felt somewhat accomplished. Spike went back to his room to continue his magic studies. Aurora laid there, thinking back to a time when her and her brother had actually gotten along like real, loving siblings. She couldn't. Even as children, they just sort of tolerated one another. No hugs. No family kisses. Their relationship was not normal, especially since she has now discovered that he was out to put her down. Was his spite against her for their mother's death that deep? This was definitely a turning point in the Rose sibling rivalry.

For years to come, the Rose siblings fought and Spike would be the one to have the last word. Aurora, determined to settle this on her own, did not tell her father about the things Spike has done. She'd try to keep him under control from using magic in public, especially at school. It'd work for awhile until their father found out about Spike using magic outside of magic studies. That's when Brandon decided to have Spike home-schooled, Spike felt it was very unfair for him to be home-schooled and complained. Brandon, however guilty he felt, gave in and placed Aurora into home studies, as well. Spike triumphed this time. Aurora became very upset when she found out she was going to start being home schooled. It meant she wouldn't see any of her friends anymore, and she was going to be the girl that went into home studies and was never heard from again. Then she started to look at the bright side. Being home schooled does have its benefits. She could go to her favorite parks and places while kids were at school, and she could find more time away from her brother.

Home-schooling went well, for the most part. Aurora would try to make herself scarce at home to get away from her brother especially when her father wouldn't be home. Aurora would go to a park nearby or she'd walk all the way from their apartment to Embarcadero to go to a park on Battery Street. It was a park with hills, trees, a garden waterfall, and the view of Coit tower that was city blocks away. At the park, she'd catch up with her magical studies. She'd even hid in the tree by the waterfall so nobody would see her practicing. After she was done with her studies, Aurora walked to Pier 39, rewarded herself with a churro, and did a bit of shopping on the pier. Her favorite attraction at the pier had to be the two-story Merry-Go-Round, at night (because it looked magical at night). It was her first merry-go-round when she was a little girl. She even remembered the time when her mother took her for her first ride on the merry-go-round and she loved it. Aurora decided to go on the merry-go-round for the first time since her mother's death. She felt silly at first, but she felt better and became nostalgic. Aurora started thinking back about the past and how great her mother was as a wizard; then she started thinking about Spike and how out of control he was becoming. That was the moment she knew for sure that she had to win the wizard competition.

Months later, the two were enrolled in WizTech, and that is where the rivalry had subsided (for the time being) since Spike didn't want to get into any trouble and have his powers revoked. Spike would just ignore her and vice-versa. That was the time they both spent most of their time studying (Spike more so than Aurora, so he'd remain to have the upper hand). Aurora didn't make too many friends at WizTech because she was always trying to study and catch up. She heard a couple of students talking about the "12 Ball tournament" and a "Justin Russo" being the best competitor in the tournament. This bit of information was one of the least interesting things she has heard while attending WizTech. Not once did the two (later-best friends) cross each others' paths at WizTech. She might've been in the same room with him, but he might've been out of sight.

After WizTech, the twins still fought, and Spike continued to harm Aurora and her studies. But this time around, the red flag was finally raised when Brandon came home to find Aurora sitting on the floor, cupping her hands, with crimson fluid dripping down to the floor. Spike used a "razor spell" on the palm of Aurora's hands. It was worse than he had ever expected. Brandon had to do something besides healing her wounds. Brandon couldn't send Spike away; he would see it as favoritism and have more of a reason to get back at Aurora. Brandon had no choice… he had to send Aurora away to somewhere safe. But to where? Brandon couldn't send her to his mortal friends' homes, they would find out about Wizards existing. Then he remembered his friend, Jerry Russo, from when he attended WizTech. He began contacting Jerry right away and asked for a favor from his friend. And to Brandon's relief, Jerry responded and happily accepted his request, unaware of the extent of Aurora's danger. On the day she was leaving, Brandon wrote the "Thank You" note for Jerry and handed it to Aurora to give to him.

This is where her story began in the Russo household. From there she'd find a new home and a new best friend. Aurora was safer now and she could successfully complete her wizard training without her brother around. She had a fighting chance.

* * *

Kitten: Small chapter about Aurora's background. Brief. Kind of rushed. Just wanted to give you an idea of what she's been through besides what has been mentioned through out the story. New chapter in progress. Please review. Thanks!


	11. Sweet Dreams pt1

Alex and Justin talked in the Alex's room days after she had figured out why Justin was upset. Justin was reluctant to say anything, but he finally gave in when Alex kept being persistent. They decided to talk in her room so nobody else could eavesdrop on the conversation.

"So what happened, Justin? Why aren't you with Juliet anymore?" asked Alex.

Justin sighed. "Nothing happened. She just dumped me. That's it."

"Oh, come on! There has to be a reason…" Alex was almost certain Juliet wouldn't break up with Justin for no reason.

"Alright," Justin admitted. He took another deep breath. "She felt like I wasn't really committed to our relationship anymore. And, of course, I denied it. I said I was committed to her and our relationship, but she didn't believe it. She could tell by "looking into my eyes" that I wasn't into her anymore."

Alex nodded her head in understanding. "And you're not?"

Justin thought about it. "I am… Oh, I don't know," he groaned. "I guess I've been distracted with my training and school."

Alex knew that wasn't the case. "Or with a wizard-girl…" she mumbled so Justin wouldn't hear. She was suggesting Aurora was his distraction.

"Huh?" Justin gave Alex a questioning look. He wasn't sure what he had heard.

"Oh, nothing," she lied. "Well, Justin, I guess this means you and Juliet are finally over." Alex sounded sincerely sympathetic.

Justin sighed again, "Yeah… Juliet and I have been through a lot together and I did love her." He smiled weakly. "I kind of wish we had that closure, but oh well-- _Que Sera, sera_."

"_Que_ Sarah? What? Who's Sarah?" The foreign cliché was lost on her.

"_Que sera, sera_. What will be, will be," Justin tried to explain. Alex couldn't to figure it out. "It's a Spanish expression!" Justin exclaimed. Alex giggled at his frustration.

"So what are you going to do now that you're single? Marry your action figures?" Alex teased.

Justin glared at Alex. "Nooo… I'm going back to Wiz-Face and meet eligible bacholorettes on the World Wide Wiz Web," Justin said coolly.

"Alright, you do that. Just don't date another werewolf, half-horse, vampire girl," Alex teased again. "Oh, and don't tell Aurora," she added. Justin gave his sister another questioning look.

"Why?" he asked.

"Wow," Alex said surprised. "I expected that oblivious response from Max, but not you…" she scoffed.

"Alex… Why?" Justin asked again.

"You really don't know?" Alex asked Justin. He titled his head, curious.

What could Alex mean? At that moment, an excited girl's voice could be heard down the hall. "Justin! Justin!" It was Aurora, and she running towards Alex's room. She entered the room excited and panting. She was clutching onto her rose pendant. It looked different than usual.

"Justin! Look! My pendant! It's whiter now!" She exclaimed excitedly. She approached him to show him her pendant, and he examined it.

"So it is! That's great Aurora!" Justin congratulated her.

"All that studying," she panted, "has been paying off!" She was bright with happiness.

Justin could tell that she was relieved. He couldn't help but smile and be happy for her. After all her hard practice and Justin helping her study spells, she finally felt like she was getting closer to winning the Wizard Competition against Spike. Aurora then realized that she had just barged in on the two siblings chatting.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized. "I just ran in here and you two were probably discussing something in private. I'll just leave you two to your conversation."

Aurora turned around to leave. Before she could leave, Justin called her back so they could hang out together and celebrate. Justin and Aurora headed out of Alex's room.

"Justin…" Alex said slyly.

Justin turned his attention to his sister. She was making suggestive looks about Aurora with her eyes. It was really funny to Alex that Justin didn't know about Aurora's obvious crush on him. Still unsure by what Alex meant, Justin rolled his eyes and followed Aurora down the stairs.

That same evening, Justin woke up in the middle of the night to sounds of whimpering. He was disoriented at first when he woke up until he realized whom the whimpers belonged to. Justin, dressed in his pajama sweats and a t-shirt, climbed out of bed and slipped on his space rocket slippers. He began to climb up the ladder to Aurora's room, the source of the whimpering. As he climbed into her room, Justin examined Aurora before he approached her. Aurora was still asleep while whimpering with tears trickling down from her closed eyes. Justin figured she was having bad dream, so he tried to gently wake her up.

"Aurora," Justin whispered softly. She still whimpered in her sleep. He tried again. "Aurora…" This time he gently nudged her shoulder to wake her up.

Aurora's eyes opened slowly. Her whimpering began to calm down. The tears didn't stop flowing, however. She sniffled and muttered something, "it was just a dream." Then she saw Justin standing next to her bedside. Sitting up in her bed now, Aurora began to wipe her eyes with the sleeve of the sweater she wore to bed with her pajamas. It was a cold night. Justin kept looking down at Aurora with a concerned expression on his face while Aurora felt ashamed for crying in her sleep and waking him up. Aurora was quick to apologize to Justin.

"I'm so sorry, Justin," she said; her voice a bit croaky from sleep and whimpering. "I didn't realize I was crying in my sleep. The nightmare felt so real…."

"What happened?" Justin asked her.

"I had a dream about the people I care about, and I had let them down because I was a terrible wizard. It made me so upset. First, I disappointed my father. Then, I disappointed your father, your family, my mother, and you…" she explained.

Aurora felt herself choking up as she recollected the details of the dream. It was just so vivid. She was so convinced that it really did happen; that is why she had begun to cry in her sleep. Aurora then felt Justin's hand rubbing her back. Justin was trying to comfort her.

"It was just a dream. You haven't disappointed anyone…" he said softly to Aurora.

Aurora stared down at her comforter. Justin could tell by the look in her eyes that she was having her doubts. She wanted to believe Justin, but maybe her dream was trying to tell her something. Justin sat next to her on her bed. He looked at her straight in the eyes so she could see he was sincere he was.

"Hey, listen," he said calmly. "You are doing excellent in your magical studies. Don't let a silly nightmare scare you from believing so, OK?" Aurora nodded. "Atta girl," he smiled.

Justin hugged her, wished her a good night, and left her in her room to sleep for the rest of the night. After Justin left, Aurora waited a few moments before she went to back to sleep. She was afraid to go back to bed in case another nightmare would take place but, eventually, her eyes grew heavy as she stayed awake. She drifted to sleep soon enough. And to Aurora's expectations, she had another nightmare. This time she did not cry, she only woke up in shock. The same shock she felt when she was attacked the first time….

A couple of days later since that night, everyone in the household were ready for school except Aurora. To the Russos' surprise, Alex was ready before Aurora. Theresa asked Justin to make sure Aurora was OK. Justin agreed with his mother's request and went back up to his room to check up on Aurora. Justin called out for Aurora into the attic from his bedroom. Groaning could be heard from above and a mumbled, "shut up." It was apparent that she was still in bed.

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty!" Justin teased.

Justin could hear her mumbling, "What time is it?" Then an "Oh god…!" response followed. Aurora had probably checked her clock for the time and was shocked to find out it was almost time to leave for school.

"Why didn't anyone wake me up?!" Aurora shouted.

Justin replied, "We didn't know you were still asleep!"

"Thanks!" Aurora shouted sarcastically.

"I'll be downstairs," Justin told Aurora.

Aurora took 15 minutes to get ready. When Aurora had finally got down the stairs to the sandwich shop, she appeared tired and out of it. She was even dragging her feet after she had climbed down the stairs. Justin asked if she was alright, but she lied when she said she was fine. The raccoon eyes on her tired face weren't convincing Justin that she was fine. Aurora made a big yawn and shuffled her feet toward the sandwich shop's doors.

"C'mon, let's get to school," she yawned.

Aurora reached for the door handles. She struggled as she tried to push the doors open. Justin shook his head. He walked up to the door and pulled it open for his friend. Aurora realized her mistake, and let out a nervous laugh. She was trying to cover up the fact that she was exhausted from her lack of sleep the past couple of nights. It was a series of nightmares that had kept her waking up and from falling back asleep in the middle of the night.

At school, Aurora had a hard time focusing. She struggled to stay awake in her second period AP English class. Justin noticed this and would try to poke her awake. The teacher was writing something down on the board and, without looking, called out Aurora's name to answer a question about the material they were covering in class. Aurora, of course, wasn't listening for she had placed her head down to rest and drifted asleep. Justin darted his attention from Aurora to the teacher and back to Aurora again. Justin had to wake her up somehow, so he flung his paperback book at her and Aurora woke up from the impact. She woke up in time to hear Mr. Derwood repeat her name again before he had turned around to catch her sleeping. Aurora yawned, blinked slowly, and tried to comprehend what was going on around her. Mr. Derwood asked her the question again.

"In Oscar Wilde's _The Importance of Being Ernest_, who was Algernon pretending to be when he visited Jack's home in the country?"

Aurora thought about it for a moment. She was sure she knew the answer, but she couldn't remember it in her tired state. She thought long and hard about the question. Justin couldn't stand watching her struggle on such an easy question. He had no choice but to try to steal the question from her. He waved his hand in the air, hoping that Mr. Derwood would pick on him for the answer.

"Mr. Derwood, the answer is Ernest!" Justin exclaimed. However, Mr. Derwood didn't accept his answer. Even if it was the right answer, he wanted to hear it from Aurora.

"Settle down, Mr. Russo," he said to Justin without even glancing at him. "Miss. Rose?"

Aurora groaned and placed her hand on her own forehead. Did Justin just give out the answer? Aurora thought to herself. She wasn't really paying attention. She was trying so hard to think about the answer. Aurora tried to recall Justin's answer; she thought about facts affiliated with the name Ernest. She got her answer. It was so obvious! Or so she thought.

"Hemingway?" she said confused.

Mr. Derwood rolled his eyes. "No, Miss. Rose, Algernon was not pretending to be the great author, Ernest Hemingway. He was pretending to be Jack's brother, Ernest Worthing," he explained. "You should've listened to Mr. Russo…" He noted sarcastically.

Aurora slapped her forehead. How could she make such an easy mistake like that? Justin shook his head. It was clear her lack of sleep had been throwing her off today. But hasn't she been sleeping well lately? As far as Justin knows, Aurora only had that one nightmare. He had to figure out what was going on.

After class, Justin, Aurora, and Zeke walked over to their lockers for their next class. Zeke and Justin were talking about their usual sci-fi stuff while Aurora stared down at the floor while they walked. She was too tired to include herself in the conversation Zeke and Justin were having. They were talking about last night's episodes of _The Pythagorean Theorem_, the episode when they played "Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock" (and the characters all chose Spock). They talked about it until Aurora started laughing strangely. At first, the two thought she was laughing about the episode, but Justin knew she hadn't watched it last night. She was, in fact, becoming delirious from exhaustion.

"What's wrong with her?" Zeke asked Justin.

"Aurora, what is so funny?" Justin asked Aurora.

The laughing girl lifted up her head to look at Justin. "The thing…!" Aurora laughed.

Justin was confused. "What thing?"

"The thing that goes, 'cling, cling, cling,' when it hits another thing!" She had a huge goofy grin across her face, like a child on Christmas morning.

Justin and Zeke looked around for what she could be talking about; then Justin saw the Janitor keys. "Don't you mean those keys?" Justin asked.

Aurora shook her head. "No! The other thing!"

Justin was still confused. He had to take care of this situation before Aurora's exhaustion becomes overwhelming. "Aurora, you should go to the nurse's office and rest. You're obviously very tired," he said seriously.

She smirked tiredly. "You're cute when you're serious," she said bluntly.

Aurora chuckled when she saw Justin's serious expression wipe away. The comment completely caught him off guard. She had never openly flirted with him before. Aurora's expression changed as well. She had just realized what she had said, and as if she had just use a swear word, she covered her mouth.

"Oops!" she said behind her mouth. Then she exclaimed, "I didn't say that!" as she began to run in the opposite direction from Justin to her next class.

Zeke gave Justin a weird look; he was really confused. Justin merely shrugged and tried hard not to smile about the comment in front of Zeke.

After school, Justin was in the lair trying to figure out what was wrong with Aurora while he supervised Alex, Max, and Aurora with their magic lesson for the day. It wasn't until recently that she has been having these nightmares. What had also happened recently? Justin thought. He sat down in the red armchair as he tried to remember. Then a loud puff of smoke could be heard from behind him. Justin didn't turn around because he assumed it was Max screwing up in the lesson again. He'll figure it out soon enough, Justin thought.

"Aurora, are you ok?" Max asked Aurora.

Justin turned around in the chair. Alex coughed and waved away the smoke that was moving towards her. "What did you do, Aurora?"

"Sorry, guys," Aurora apologized.

Justin turned his attention to the others, "What happened?"

"Aurora messed up the potion and it went 'poof!' and exploded," Alex explained.

Aurora groaned, "I was following the directions! It said to add an inch of--" she reread the directions in the potion book. "Ohh…! It said to add a pinch! Not an inch!"

"Aurora, you should really go rest now," Justin told her.

"But if I do…" Aurora began to say.

She looked at the Russo siblings then down at her pendant. The number of white petals was diminishing as the black petals slowly started to overwhelm the pendant. Aurora sighed. She walked out of the lair to retreat into her bedroom. The Russos watched her as she left. Justin felt bad. He knew how much it meant for her to be on top of her lessons. And it was now starting to become clear to him.

"Lack of sleep… The pendant… Wizard Competition…." Justin said out loud, "Aurora's stressed out about her wizard competition!"

"What?" asked Max and Alex.

Alex and Max didn't know what was going on and Justin didn't expect them to. Justin left the lair with a dash while leaving his brother and sister unattended with their magic studies. Aurora was upstairs in her room trying to sleep. She kept waking up from more nightmares. It was becoming very difficult to keep her eyes shut when images of the things that had frighten her kept flashing in her mind. Just then, she could hear someone climbing up the ladder to her bedroom. She looked over from her bed to see who it was and, of course, it was Justin. He climbed up the ladder and walked over to sit on Aurora's bed.

"Aurora," he began to say, "I know why you haven't been sleeping well the past few nights." Aurora sat up and looked at Justin. "You've been stressed out about the wizard competition, so you've been staying up late at night to study."

Aurora shook her head. "That's not it, Justin," she told him.

He looked at her confused. "Then what's wrong?"

"I'm not sure, but I know it's not because I am staying up late to study magic! As of recently I've been having these nightmares and they won't stop," Aurora explained.

"Did you try using the sweet dream spell?" Justin asked her.

She shook her head. "I have tried and nothing works. I would sleep and find myself in a nightmare. I'd wake up and stay awake because a nightmare would terrify me. It's a terrible cycle and the ending result leads to a bad night's sleep! "

Justin began to brainstorm in his mind. There has to be something that could be done. He thought long and hard, until he had finally figured it out. He stood up from her bed and told Aurora he'd meet her back in her room after dinner. He left the room and went back downstairs to the lair. Aurora wondered what Justin was up to, but she trusted him to find a solution.

Later that evening, after they had dinner and it was time for bed, Justin tossed up his comforter and pillow into Aurora's bedroom. He climbed up the ladder wearing his pajamas and a light blue helmet with clouds on it. Aurora recognized the helmet. It was the Dream Helmet and she had seen it before in a wizard catalog back home in her family's lair. Justin had pulled out the monster detector from inside his pillow case. It was apparent now what Justin's plan was, but why did he need his monster detector?

"Okay, so why do you have your monster detector?" Aurora asked Justin.

Justin tinkered with his monster detector for a moment before answering. "We don't know what we're up against. Maybe the source of your nightmares is a monster, or maybe you just need to learn how to control your nightmares. Either way, we don't know what the case is; it is best that we prepare for anything," Justin explained.

He picked up his comforter and began to lay it out on Aurora's bed. Aurora looked down at her bed as Justin patted down the comforter on her bed.

"What are you doing?" Aurora asked.

"Laying down my comforter," Justin said. He was clueless.

"No you're not…"

He looked up at Aurora confused. "Why not?" he asked.

"Me, girl. You, boy," Aurora explained, Tarzan-like.

Justin finally got it and he was embarrassed. He had almost forgotten about the situation. But how could he?

"Uh… Would that be weird?" Justin asked.

Aurora shrugged. "Well, _YEAH_… I know we're friends and all, but it's still weird."

The more they both thought about it, the weirder it was. They are just friends after all; why would it be weird? And they did promise Jerry no shenanigans, but they weren't even thinking about _shenanigans_. Justin had to admit to Aurora that he didn't want to sleep on the attic floor because it was bad for his back. Then he went on a long explanation about how a proper place to sleep is best for a healthy back and maintaining good posture. He kept going on until Aurora broke down and agreed to let him stay in her bed. Not only did Aurora seem to feel weird about sharing her bed, but she appeared to be agitated as well. Justin concluded it was her crankiness from sleep deprivation.

Justin sighed in relief, "I just really don't want to sleep on the floor."

Aurora took a deep exasperated breath. "And I don't want you to complain about helping me if you wake up with a bad back in the morning." Justin nodded and thanked Aurora. "No problem."

Aurora picked up her wand from her nightstand and waved it over her small twin-sized bed to turn it into a large queen-size. If they were going to share a bed, it better be spacey so they can sleep on either side. Aurora then flicked her wand at herself to change into her pajamas while Justin was busy tinkering with the dream helmet. She crawled into her own comforter first and laid down with her back facing Justin. Justin watched her as she lay in her comforter on the opposite side of the bed, and he finished making the final adjustments on the dream helmet. Then Justin crawled into his comforter and fluffed up his pillow. He laid down facing the entrance to the attic.

"Should we close the entrance?" Justin asked.

"No…" Aurora answered. She turned to look at Justin and sat up in her bed. "Why would we want to do that?"

Justin shrugged. "I don't know, just in case…"

"What would we be doing, other than sleeping, that would require closing the attic door?" Aurora asked Justin. He began to feel embarrassed for even mentioning it.

He nervously shrieked under his voice, "….Aaawwkkwaaarrd."

Aurora mumbled and laid back down in her original position. She was beginning to drift asleep slowly. Aurora closed her eyes.

"Goodnight, Aurora," Justin said to her.

"Goodnight," she answered sleepily.

Not too long after she fell asleep, Justin drifted asleep as well. And after what seemed like a moment of darkness, Justin found himself in a different environment. He looked around and examined his surroundings. Justin was lying in a tiny bed in a room that he had never been in before in his life. He sat up. It appeared to be a little girl's room. Everything was unfamiliar to him except the teddy bear that lay next to him on the little girl bed. He picked up the teddy bear and examined it closely.

The teddy bear looked hand-made from pink and white yarn with one blue yarn eyeball and the other one missing, it was small, its lips were stained with lipstick, and the bear was stuffed with cotton. Justin had seen it before, but from where?

Justin walked over to the bedroom window to see where he was. He looked out the window to see a large cityscape, a bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge. He was no longer in Manhattan; instead, he was in San Francisco. Not too long after the realization, the ground below him began to quake. Justin panicked. He had forgotten what to do in case of an earthquake. However, outside the bedroom, Justin could hear children screaming and a woman's voice trying to calm the children down.

"Quick! Stand by the door way! We'll be safe there!" he heard the woman say to the children.

Justin took the woman's advice, too, and stood by the bedroom's doorway. Justin clenched onto the small teddy bear tightly in fear. He could hear a little girl's voice crying outside the room from another part of the house.

"My bear!" the little girl cried. "I have to get my bear!"  
"It's OK," the woman exclaimed. "Your bear will be fine!" Justin could hear the little girl running away toward the bedroom now.  
"Aurora!" the woman exclaimed.

Justin's eyes widened when he heard the familiar name. Justin had remembered what was going on. He must be in Aurora's nightmare! The little girl's footsteps grew louder as she approached the bedroom. Justin remained hidden behind the bedroom door so he didn't startle her. He was expecting to see little eight-year-old Aurora, but instead, the Aurora he has grown familiar with showed up running into the bedroom in the pajamas she had worn to bed. Aurora searched frantically around the room for her teddy bear. She began to search underneath the bed for the bear. It wasn't there.

Justin looked down at the bear in his hand. He knew he had seen it somewhere before. He had seen it in Aurora's bedroom. The bear sat next to the family portrait Aurora had sitting on her desk. The bear held a lot of sentimental value to Aurora. Probably a lot more than the leather jacket because it was a piece of her childhood.

Justin came out slowly from behind the door. He held the teddy bear up toward Aurora.

"Looking for this?" he asked her.

Aurora looked away from underneath the bed and saw Justin. She stood up quickly (wobbling a little bit from the earthquake) and took the teddy bear. She was wondering why Justin was in her bedroom.

"Justin? WH-what are you doing here?" she asked him.

"I'm here to help you with your nightmare, remember?"

"The dream helmet!" Aurora remembered. And Justin nodded. "Oh, no…" Aurora then mumbled. "This can't be happening…" She clenched her teddy bear. "Not again…" The two could hear the woman approaching her bedroom.

Justin looked at her confused. "What? What do you mean again? You've had this nightmare before?"

"It's not a nightmare, Justin. It's one of my memories …" Aurora said with notable sadness.

She looked down at the floor as her eyes began to water. Aurora hugged her teddy bear for comfort. She knew what was going to happen now. She was going to experience everything that happened years ago in this nightmare. Justin watched her delve into her own thoughts. There has to be something he could do to help her now.

The young woman, who Justin now recognized was Adeline, came running into the bedroom, not noticing Justin standing there, and grabbed Aurora away to safety. Justin followed them outside the bedroom and watched Aurora get pulled away by the arm through the chaos.

"You can change it, Aurora!" he shouted after her. "It's just a dream!"

Aurora looked back at Justin and then to her mother. He was right. It was just a dream and she had to do something to change it. The ceiling above her and her mother was beginning to crack. If she didn't act quickly the dream wasn't going to end well. She looked down at the teddy bear in her other hand. She had an idea. The ceiling had begun to collapse and before Adeline got the chance to shove her away--

_"Ursa Majorus!"_

Her teddy bear grew in size and became big enough to shield Aurora and her mother, Adeline, from the falling debris. They were safe. The earthquake ceased and the nightmare was over. Aurora glanced over at the door way. She was expecting to see a younger version of her twin brother, but instead she saw her same-aged brother standing there, glaring at her as he disappeared from the nightmare. Was he really there in the dream? She shook her head and crawled out from underneath the huge teddy bear. Justin ran up to Aurora and helped her up.

"You did it!" Justin cheered. "I knew you could!"

"Thank you, Justin," Aurora smiled. "You were right. It was just a dream!"

He smiled back. "You're welcome."

They looked around as their surrounding was disappearing.

"Is it time to wake up yet?" Aurora asked Justin.

Justin lifted his right arm to check his wrist watch. "Yup. 6 o'clock in the morning. Right on time."

"You wear a watch to bed?" She smirked.

Justin glared at her. "Yes, I like to wake up on time."

Aurora giggled and, before she could say anything, Justin had woken up first. He opened his eyes slowly. He felt extra warmth against his body, and his arm resting on something that was warm too and it felt curved. His vision wasn't clear, but when he blinked a few times, Justin realized that he had been lying right next to Aurora while they were sleeping and his arm was resting on her waist. He wanted to move away quickly before she woke up, so he did. He moved away so quickly, he rolled off the bed causing Aurora to wake up.

Aurora lazily crawled to Justin's side of the bed and yawned. She stared down at her fallen friend with tired eyes and sluggishly inquired what her friend was doing falling off the bed like that. Justin wanted to explain to her about what position he woke up in, lying closely next to her with his arm around her waist while they slept, but if sharing a bed made her uncomfortable then learning how close they were might have made her upset.

"I just rolled off because I forgot I was sleeping in your bed," Justin lied.

Aurora didn't question it anymore than that. She just remained sprawled out on the bed. It was the first time in awhile that she had a good night's rest and she wanted to stay asleep. Justin removed the dream helmet and made sure the fall didn't cause any damage. Then he checked his monster detector to see if it had gone off. Nothing. No sign of a monster. Maybe the she was really stressed about her family's wizard competition after all.

Justin watched his friend rest soundly. He checked his watch again. It was only six 'o three. Another twenty-seven minutes of rest before school wouldn't hurt his friend. He smiled softly to himself, as Aurora breathed slowly in her sleep, remembering how warm she was next to him. Justin chuckled quietly and shook his head. It didn't really bother him to wake up next to her like that. What kept him from lying there, even for fifteen more minutes, was rejection. But little did Justin know, oh little did he know….

_____________

Kitten: WOW. Took me like... A YEAR TO UPDATE! Ha, ha! JUST KIDDING! Took me like a month or two. D; Ouch. I was just stuck on this chapter because I didn't know where I wanted to go with it! And there's another part to this chapter, but I figured I'll just put this one up and use the other part as a new chapter. I've been very busy too with work and talking to my new WOWP friends on twitter! They're sooo awesome. :3 I love them. If you're fans of WOWP (obviously), you should join our chatroom Friday nights 8pm PST. :] I'll post the URL on my profile. Thanks for the reviews! And I'll promise to fix the description for Aurora, Kitty Otaku! I'm trying hard to keep Aurora out of the "hardcore mary-sue" zone, okay? No one likes a mary-sue!


	12. Sweet Dreams pt2

Aurora appeared to have been doing well since earlier that morning after Justin helped her control her dream. She was able to have a better night of sleep and was able to function properly throughout the day. Justin was glad he could help. Aurora was at peace for now, and hopefully, when she goes to bed later, she'll be able to sleep well again.

Justin wasn't paying much attention in class today. He couldn't understand why, but he would find himself glancing over at Aurora, in her desk, focusing on the material that was being discussed in their AP English class. She looked so determined to take down notes and pay attention to every detail the teacher lectured on about. Aurora did not want to repeat her mistake in class yesterday when she answered "Hemingway" instead of the correct answer; she was set on paying close attention today in class to make up for her mistake. They were still discussing Oscar Wilde's _Importance of Being Ernest_, which Justin already knew enough about because he had read the book in advanced and took his own notes, and if there was anything he missed, he was sure Aurora would have it down in her notes.

He couldn't help but think back to this morning when he woke up. His face in her hair, she smelled like strawberries and (like her surname--oddly enough) roses, her back was warm against is chest, and his hand laid comfortably around her waist. It was a brief moment before he freaked out, but he slowed down the moment in his mind and recollected the details by memory. It felt nice to wake up next to someone instead of his favorite action figure.

Justin hadn't realized it then but the bell had rung and he was staring off in Aurora's direction. Aurora noticed this and looked at him strangely. She looked at Zeke to see if he knew what was going on. Zeke hadn't noticed and shrugged at Aurora. He didn't know what was going on with his best friend. Aurora tried to get Justin's attention. She waved her hand in front of his face and got no reaction from him. Justin staring at her was making her nervous and almost self-conscious.

"Oh, my god! Stop looking at me!" Aurora squealed.

Justin snapped out of it. "That worked," Zeke laughed.

Justin looked around and saw the classroom was empty except for his two friends in the room and the teacher erasing the chalk board.

"Class is over already?" Justin asked.

Aurora and Zeke nodded. "And you were staring at Aurora for the last couple of minutes after the bell rang," Zeke added.

"You were creeping me out," Aurora smiled nervously.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. Sorry," Justin apologized.

"No worries, buddy," Aurora said; then she dismissed herself without looking directly at Justin. "I better get going to my next class. See you at lunch, guys!"

The two said good-bye to their friend and watched her leave the room. They stood up from their seats and exited the class room.

"Dude, what was that about?" Zeke asked Justin.

"What do you mean?" Justin asked.

"I mean, you staring at Aurora! It was like you were lost in a moment or something," said Zeke.

Justin paused for a moment before he could reply. He was stuck in a moment, wasn't he? Justin couldn't tell Zeke about what happened earlier that morning. He'd ask why he shared a bed with her last night and tease him about it, and lightening the truth wouldn't be good enough. He couldn't just tell Zeke, "I shared a bed with her because she had nightmares." No, it was something between just him and Aurora. Nobody else knew and they didn't have to because it had been resolved. So what was Justin suppose to say to Zeke now so he'd stop asking? That he could potentially be having a crush on his friend? _Wait, what?_ Justin thought.

"So Justin, what's going on? You've got a crush on Aurora?" Zeke nudged Justin.

Just when he thought he was figured out, Justin was too clever to reveal himself, so he scoffed. "Pleaseee…" Zeke looked at him confused. "Aurora? No, she and I are just friends. No…" Justin lied.

Zeke didn't believe him. "Then why were you staring at her the way you did?"

Justin looked at him puzzled. "How did I look?"

"Like a _gubnox_ looking at a _gubnox-babchu_ during _Gubnoxly_ mating season!" Zeke then fixated his expression to imitate Justin's back in the classroom, except it was a tad more exaggerated. His eyes were swooning and his mouth was wide open as if he was to drool.

Justin scoffed again. "Oh, I was not looking at her like that!"

"Oh, yeah? Then why did you have that look on your face for?" Zeke asked confidently.

"Because…" Justin tried to think up a lie. "Because… I was thinking about Juliet!" _Bingo_, thought Justin.

"Oh…" Zeke said. "You're still hung up on her?"

Justin had a fake frown on across his face and saddened his eyes. "Yeah, man…"

"Man, you have got to forget about her! There are plenty of fish in sea, Justin. You just need to get yourself a fishing pole and catch those fish!" Zeke patted Justin on the shoulder.

Justin looked at his friend strangely. He didn't use a sci-fi reference for once. Justin shrugged. "Yeah, I plan on it, Zeke…" he said; then he mumbled to himself, "I plan on it…"

He remembered his conversation with Alex and the "eligible ladies" of the world wide wiz web. Something in his gut clenched at him when he thought about meeting girls on wiz-face, but he ignored the feeling and continued walking to his next class.

For the rest of the day, Aurora and Justin seemed kind of distant from one another. Justin was pretty sure he had scared her when he was caught staring right at her. Justin didn't know, however, that Aurora had other troubles on her mind. In fact, she wasn't afraid of him staring at her, but she felt flattered. What was on her mind though was her brother, Spike.

For some reason she felt he was causing her sleep deprivation. It made sense after all. After she had finally overwhelmed the pendants with white petals, her problems began to arise when she felt a break through. What racked her brain the most was how she saw him standing there before her in her last dream. Aurora was pretty certain he was behind all this, but how?

The two friends went to bed that night, in their own beds now. They didn't say much to each other except idle chit-chat about one of their favorite episodes of Bewitched. The episode when Aunt Clara conjured Tabatha's toy UFO into a real UFO with actual spacemen inside. Then they said their good-nights and went off to bed for the rest of the night. However, Justin couldn't sleep for some reason. His mind was restless as he kept thinking about the "what ifs" between him and Aurora and his potential girlfriends. What if he did started dating again? Would Aurora care? What if he dated Aurora? He shook the thought from his head. He shouldn't date one of his best friends. If it didn't work out then their friendship would falter and they would hate each other afterward. Justin concluded that they were better off as friends. As he pondered, Justin heard a loud thud up in the attic.

It was twelve o'clock in the morning, and the thud startled him. It was quiet in Aurora's room until he heard the abrupt noise. The thudding continued repeatedly. It was starting to sound more like repeated kicks. Curious about what was happening; Justin cautiously climbed out of bed and climbed up into Aurora's room.

He peaked into the attic entrance to make sure it was safe. Aurora's kicking had calmed down. Justin looked over at Aurora lying in her bed with a troubled expression on her face. Was she having another nightmare? Justin entered into her room and walked over to Aurora. She began to toss and turn and even started kicking again. Justin took a step back to make sure he wouldn't get kicked. When she calmed down again, Justin nudged her to wake up.

"Aurora" he whispered.

She didn't. Aurora still looked troubled in her sleep and she started to whimper in fear. Justin became worried and tried to call her name again while he tried shake her awake. She was still in a deep sleep. Why wouldn't she wake up? Justin had to do something. He climbed down the ladder quickly and ran down to the lair-- quietly-- to grab the Dream Helmet.

On his way back up to his room, Justin bumped into his sister. She was "sleep walking" her way to the kitchen for some late night desserts. She would've continued with what she was doing until she saw Justin carrying the dream helmet.

"What are you doing with the dream helmet?" Alex asked her brother.

Justin wanted to bolt past his sister but she was standing in his way. "Aurora's in trouble and I have to help her! Now let me through!" Justin whispered harshly.

Alex moved out of the way, confused, and watched her brother quietly swift up the stairs back up to his room and into Aurora's. She wanted to worry, but her tummy called for some of her mom's special septuplet-chocolate cake. Yes, septuplet-chocolate. Alex made her way to the kitchen and dug at the cake with her bare hands.

"Mm, yummy," Alex mumbled with cake in her mouth. "I can taste the sugar coma."

Meanwhile, Justin was back in Aurora's room. He fastened the dream helmet on his head and climbed into Aurora's bed. He fell off at first because the bed was back to being its original twin-size, but Justin didn't care. He was far too concerned about Aurora than her bed size. He climbed back on the bed and tried hard not to fall off. Justin lied down next to Aurora with his back against her and shut his eyes.

"SLEEP! SLEEP!" he hissed to himself.

It wasn't working. He was too worked up to fall asleep instantly. He sighed. Justin turned his body to face the sleeping Aurora with a sad look on her face. Justin frowned for his friend. He wanted to help her right away but Justin knew he needed to relax. He watched Aurora sleeping as waited for sleep to come. It made him feel helpless to see her in discomfort like this. He wanted to hug her to make her feel better; to let her know that he was there now and it would be alright.

Justin placed his arm over her waist like he did before and rested his head on his other arm underneath Aurora's pillow. After he did this, Justin noticed Aurora's expression soften. It had put him at ease that he was able to do something for now. He smiled softly to himself as he felt his eyes grow heavier and heavier…. Justin blacked out briefly and found himself on a small island surrounded by nothing but ocean.

"Justin!" cried Aurora.

Justin turned to face Aurora. To his disappointment she was on another island not very far from his. The two islands were separated by a large gap of ocean. Off the coast of Aurora's island was a boat with a sail.

On the boat stood a boy in a captain's uniform who appeared to be Justin and Aurora's age. He looked as tall as Justin, with messy dark hair, thick eyebrows, slightly darker skin than Aurora, and brown eyes just like Aurora's. There were some similarities in his and Aurora's face. He must be Spike, who Justin heard so much about.

Spike looked over at Justin and he smirked. "Justin Russo," he said slyly. "I've heard so much about you and your family. I even took the liberty of learning more about you on my own time, and I must say what an interesting background you all have."

Justin didn't know what to say to Spike except to glare. He already disliked him. From what he has heard about him, Justin knew he didn't have to give Spike the chance to disclaim the "evil brother" title.

"A wizard father who gave up his powers for a mortal? If I were you, I'd be ashamed to call them my parents," Spike taunted.

"At least I have a mom," Justin retorted.

Justin realized what he had just said and looked over at Aurora. She noticeably winced but knew Justin's comment was meant to hurt Spike. He mouthed his apology to Aurora while Spike became aggravated by Justin's remark. "Sorry…" Aurora weakly smiled at him. She kept looking into the ocean with fear. What was she looking at?

Justin hadn't noticed it before but the ocean was infested with sharks of all types. The ocean around Aurora's island was especially shark infested. Justin was aware of her fear of sharks. He watched her as she cowered when one shark surfaced above the water with its nose up first and its dark eyes fixated on her like she was food. Aurora squealed and kept her eyes shut hoping that she could get away. Spike merely laughed at his sister squirming in fear. Justin couldn't stand to watch Spike torture his own sister like that.

"Spike, why are you doing this?!" Justin asked Spike frustrated.

"She deserves it after what she did to my mother!" Spike exclaimed. You can sense the revenge in his tone.

"No, she doesn't! She didn't do anything! I saw what happened, and you know it! You're using a dream helmet aren't you? That's how you're able to get into Aurora's dreams and alter them into nightmares!"

"But we don't have a dream helmet at home. We never had one in all the years I've been living there," Aurora said.

She backed away from the shore of the island as far as she could, but when she did, she was only closer to the other side of the island's shore. That's when a great white jumped out of the water and dived back into the ocean. Aurora squealed frantically. She was afraid to the point of tears.

"That's because I had order one after you came for a visit during Halloween and _dia de los muertos_," Spike explained. "And because of you, mother left our home early on _dia de los muertos_ to go see you and those sorry excuses for wizards at their home!"

"Knock it off, Spike!" Justin yelled out defensively. "That was your mother's decision, not Aurora's! Just like it was her choice to sacrifice her life to save your sister!"

Spike looked at Justin with an intense scowl on his face. He waved his hand swiftly in Justin's direction. The sharks began to swim away from Aurora's island toward the one Justin was standing on. Spike made another wave of his hand and lifted it upward. The ocean level began to creep up on the shore of the little island. The sharks ferociously swam around the island. Justin could see how much land he had left to stand on as the tide rose. Justin inched away from the shore as far as he could from being shark food.

"Spike! Stop it! Leave Justin out of this!" Aurora pleaded. "This is between you and me!"

"I know this. I'm just demonstrating how he should mind his own business," Spike smirked.

At that moment, one shark felt bold enough to jerk itself onto shore in attempt to grab Justin. Justin moved to the side as much as he could without getting in to the water and the shark had missed. It jerked its body around heavily to get back into the water.

"The sharks are rather peckish today," Spike grinned evilly.

Justin didn't have much land to stand on now. Aurora couldn't stand to watch Justin in trouble. The ocean water was now at his ankles and the smaller sharks began to circle around him waiting for a chance to strike. One small shark did, but it only tugged at his pajama bottoms causing Justin to fall over into the water. The sharks were ready to strike now.

"_He needs to stay afloat, so please put Justin on a boat._"

Aurora had cast the spell and a boat appeared where Justin had fallen in the ocean. Justin opened his eyes when he realized he was no longer in the water. He sat up in the boat. It was a wooden row boat. Not exactly the boat of choice in this particular situation, but at least he was out of the water. However, the sharks began to swim under it in an attempt to rock it.

"Hey! Don't rock the boat!" Justin panicked.

Spike, still standing on his boat, snarled at his twin sister. "What do you think you're doing? Would you rather have the sharks come after you instead of your boyfriend?"

Aurora showed no sign of fear on her face when she glared back at her brother. "Yes."

Spike chuckled. "So be it!"

He whistled for the sharks to change action now. The sharks obeyed. But along the way Aurora used another spell:

"_Yar thar, meaty!_"

The boat that had acted as Spike's throne in the dream, the thing that kept him away from harm, now became a boat made entirely of red, raw meat. The sharks distracted from their course when they had smelled the meat's blood floating in the ocean and swam for the meaty boat instead of Aurora. The sharks feasted upon the boat. Spike panicked as his meaty-boat began to sink as it was being consumed. He knew it was time to retreat.

"Leave me alone, Spike!" Aurora shouted.

"We'll see about that!" Spike shouted back in spite.

Spike disappeared and so did the boat and the sharks. Aurora ran over into the water towards Justin and waited for him to row the boat close enough to her. When he was close enough to pull her on the boat, he hummed, "I'm on a boat. I'm on a boat. Everybody look at me 'cause I'm sailing on a boat."

"Thank you so much for showing up, Justin!" Aurora hugged him.

Justin hugged Aurora back. "I was worried when you weren't waking up, so I had to do something." He pulled away from the hug. "I'm glad I did." Justin messed up her hair playfully. Aurora giggled, but she stopped abruptly when she saw how serious Justin looked. "So that was Spike?" He asked Aurora.

Aurora frowned. "Yep. He is the twin brother that I am ever so fond of," she said sarcastically.

Justin shook his head. "I'm glad you were able to move away from THAT…" Justin said.

Aurora nodded in full agreement. "Yeah, me too."

Justin said in disbelief, "I can't believe he would do that to you!"

"Really? Because I can," Aurora said sarcastically. Justin noticed her sarcasm. Of course she would know. She had to put up with Spike her entire life. "Justin, Spike was behind the whole thing that has been happening to me lately," Aurora began to explain. "As soon as he saw his pendant go from black to white, he had to do something. That's why he decided to invade my dreams and fill them with nightmares. He knew that if he could get me sleep deprived, I would fall behind in my wizard training."

"That isn't fair," Justin said. "If you're ahead in your training, that shouldn't give him the right to interfere."

"I know…"

Aurora eyes looked down at the ground in shame. Justin hugged her again, tighter this time.

"Well, we should wake up now to get ready for school," said Justin. Aurora nodded.

The two woke up simultaneously. Justin hoped Aurora didn't freak out with his arm being on her waist and the closeness because if she did, he was sure he would fall off the bed. Aurora opened her eyes slowly, blinked once, blinked again, and looked directly at Justin. Did she notice how close he was? Justin wondered.

"Morning," she yawned.

"Oh, my god…"

Aurora looked over Justin. Her eyes widened when she saw who was standing behind Justin. Justin looked over his shoulder. He, too, was shocked to see who was standing there.

"Alex!" Justin said surprised.

He was so shocked; he fell off the bed to his displeasure.

"So that's why you have the dream helmet! You've been sneaking up to Aurora's room the past couple of nights to have secret getaway dreams!" Alex exclaimed. "You know, I have to say, bro, that you are pretty clever. Sneaking around behind mom and dad after they've told you no shenanigans… I respect that," Alex said slyly.

"Alex, it's not what you think," Justin tried to explain.

"So you're not using the dream helmet to get inside Aurora's dreams and you haven't been sleeping in her room?"

"Yes, but you see--" Justin's explanation was interrupted.

"--I'm telling mom and dad!" Alex smirked.

Justin, still lying on the floor, tried to grab her feet in his attempt to stop her, but Alex got away and climbed down the ladder. Justin slammed his fist on the floor and cursed under his breath. He sat up and removed the helmet from his head. He apologized to Aurora.

"For what?" Aurora asked. She was still sleepy.

"For being that close to you in the bed," Justin admitted sheepishly.

She laughed. "It's OK, Justin. It's nothing."

"What do you mean?" Justin asked.

"It's nothing compared to what's going to happen now…"

In the distance, "FAMILY MEETING! IN THE LAIR! RIGHT NOW!" Jerry shouted.

And Alex's voice could be heard from the kitchen, "You two are so busted!"

In the lair, the Russos and Aurora were still in their pajamas. Jerry looked at Justin and Aurora sternly and began to pace the room. He stopped and turned to face the two again.

"I thought I told you two, 'No Shenanigans!'" Jerry exclaimed.

"But Dad, we weren't up to any 'shenanigans,'" Justin explained. "Aurora has been having these nightmares the past few days and I was using the dream helmet to help her."

Jerry shook his head. "You don't need the helmet," Jerry said. "You could've used the sweet dream spell and her nightmares would go away."

Aurora chimed in this debate. "But Mr. Russo, I've tried just about every spell I could to stop the nightmares, but they didn't work."

"Yeah," Justin agreed. "That's why I used the dream helmet to help her! And you know what else?"  
"What?" Jerry asked.

"Aurora's brother, Spike, was behind all the nightmares Aurora was having," Justin answered.

Jerry didn't believe him. "No, no way did Aurora's brother try to sabotage Aurora's sleep. I don't believe you."

"What reason do you have to not believe me, Dad? Aurora was doing well with her magic studies and Spike knew it! He knew it because of their family's pendants. You know how it works. You know the Rose's family history better than we do." Justin looked directly into his father's eyes, hoping he'll believe him.

"I-I'm sorry, Justin, but…" Jerry said regretfully. He knew how hard his son was trying to convince him.

At that moment, the wizard portal busted open. The white smoke that poured out of the portal cloaked a figure that stepped out of the portal. Everyone in the room turned to look at the figure that had emerged from the portal. When the smoke cleared, Aurora gasped when she saw who it was. Spike had traveled from his family's lair to the Russo's to settle his matters with Aurora.

"Jerry, who is that?" Theresa asked.

"That's…" Jerry couldn't get the words out. He couldn't believe it.

"That's Aurora's twin brother, Spike," Justin answered bitterly. His bitterness was not directed at Jerry for it was intentionally in spite of Spike.

"I told you to leave me alone, Spike!" Aurora shouted.

"Awe… No hug for your brother who came all the way from home just to see his darling sister? I'm hurt," Spike said slyly.

He approached the family closer. Jerry walked over to his kids and his wife and cautiously pushed them back away from Spike. Justin was resistant to follow, but Jerry whispered to him, "It's a family matter." Aurora didn't follow them. She stood there, glaring at Spike. Spike stopped a good four-feet away from his sister.

"I'm not afraid of you, Spike," Aurora growled.

"Oh, really?" He asked with a smug on his face.

"Yes, really," she answered.

He tilted his head. "What makes you say that?"

"Because you wouldn't go through all this trouble if it meant you were behind when I caught up."

Spike's smug-look weakened. She got him. But Spike shook his head despite the fact she was right.

"I still know more spells than you," he retorted.

"I still stand by my previous statement!"

Spike grew frustrated with his sister.

"_Eetselectrifyus!_" Spike exclaimed as he thrusted his hands towards his sister and sent volts of electricity coursing through her body.

"Aurora!" the Russos gasped and cried out.

Aurora fell to the floor in pain. Justin tried to run past his father, but Jerry grabbed onto his arm and held him back.

"No, Justin!" Justin looked at his father. He was furious and Jerry could tell.

"Dad! I have to help her," Justin pleaded.

"I understand that, but we have to try to reason with him first," Jerry tried to reassure his son.

"You can't reason with him, dad! He's evil!" Justin exclaimed.

Just then, the Russos felt a force push them against the wall. No matter how hard they struggled they couldn't part from the wall. Spike had conjured up a spell to keep the Russo family pressed against the wall.

"Ow! Something is poking me!" Alex groaned.

Spike laughed. "I'd say something inappropriate, but you're way over there and I'm over here." Spike smirked.

"Don't flirt with my sister!" barked Justin.

"Don't call me evil!" Spike argued. "I prefer to be recognized as an evil genius."

Alex looked up at Spike. "You, too? Oh, my gosh. Who would've thought that Aurora's brother would have something in common with me." Alex laughed at the irony.

Jerry, Justin, Theresa, and Max glared at Alex. She noticed the glares and sheepishly stopped laughing. Aurora stood up slowly after being electrocuted. She was straining as she used whatever energy she had in her to get up. It wasn't the first time she was shocked, but it still hurt her a lot. At least this time around she wasn't paralyzed on the ground.

"Spike," she said weakly. "We have to make this fair."

"What do you know about being fair?" Spike asked bitterly.

"A lot more than you!" she snapped. She groaned after she had raised her voice and fell back to the ground.

Justin watched his friend struggle in pain. Not only was she hurt but her pajamas were singed, the ends of her hair look dead, and her fair skin look burnt now. Aurora hadn't done anything to fight back because she was the better person. Justin felt useless being up against the wall. He wanted to use magic to help everyone out of this mess. His father's words echoed in his mind, "Reason with him." That was what Aurora was trying to do. She was trying to reason with her brother. Justin knew now what he had to do.

"Spike," Justin said calmly.

Spike looked away from his incapacitated sister to Justin. "What is it now, Russo?"

"You have to be fair with Aurora. She hasn't done anything to get in your way. All she has done to keep up with you is study really hard. And you know it wasn't her fault for your mother's passing," Justin started. He hesitated with the next few words he was going to say because he didn't want to beg. "Please, leave Aurora alone, Spike. You have to make the competition fair if you want to gain your family's magic."

Spike didn't show any emotion toward Justin's speech. He looked at his sister, wincing in pain, on the ground. Then Spike looked back at Justin. His eyes grew sad and Spike buried his face in the palm of his hands. He whimpered loudly behind his hands.

"You're right! I've been a terrible brother!" Spike cried.

Aurora looked up at her brother. She couldn't believe what was happening. Was he actually crying? Did he actually resent tormenting her after all these years? Justin smiled proudly as if he made a breakthrough in someone's life. Everyone felt a sense of relief until they heard a muffled chuckling.

"Very good, Russo, but I don't fold that easily," Spike snickered.

"Darn! I thought reasoning with him would work," Justin mumbled under his breath, disappointed.

"I'll give you kudos on the effort, but I think I'll have strike a few points for the speech," Spike said snidely. He raised his arms, "_Eetselec-_"

"_My YOUNGER twin brother is a pest, send him back if he knows what's best._"

"You did NOT just call me younger!" Spike groaned.

Aurora smirked as she watched her brother flash away from the Russo's lair to go back to their lair back home in San Francisco. He always hated being called the younger twin. Even if they were born on the same day, Spike disliked the fact that he was born two minutes after Aurora.

The Russos were released from the wall and Justin was quick to rush to Aurora's side and help her up. Aurora groaned as Justin tried to lift her up from the ground. Jerry looked over at his son and called to him. Justin turned around while carrying the injured Aurora.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you, son," Jerry apologized.

"It's ok, dad," Justin said.

Theresa rushed over to Justin and Aurora. "_iporicita!_" she said sympathetically. Theresa petted Aurora's head. "Poor thing… She probably should stay home from school."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a bad idea," Justin agreed.

Aurora struggled as she tried to pinch Justin's arm but stopped when her own arm was sore.

"You suck," Aurora mumbled. Justin laughed lightly.

Alex thought out loud. "You know for an evil twin brother he wasn't pretty bad loo--" She stopped her thought when everyone glared at her again. "--I mean… For an evil twin brother he was pretty bad." She still got looks from everyone in the lair. Alex's eyes darted nervously at the eyes looking back at her. She ran out of the lair and ran back up into her room to get ready for school.

"Justin, go set Aurora down on the couch. I'll take care of her while you guys go to school, ok?" Theresa said to Justin.

"Are you sure, mom? I could stay home so you can help dad run the sandwich shop."

"No, Justin, it's ok. You can collect Aurora's homework from her teachers and bring them to her when you get back."

"Oh, goodie, homework on a sick day…" Aurora mumbled. Justin laughed softly and carried his friend up the stairs to the loft.

Later that day, after school, the Russo children returned to the Sub Station. Theresa and Jerry asked how their day was at school; Justin answered quickly as he made his way up the stairs to the loft to check up on Aurora. Aurora was lying on the couch all day watching a Bewitched marathon on TV Land. She was feeling much better after a soak in the tub and a change of clothes out of her singed pajamas. Justin entered the loft.

"Hey, Justin! You're just in time. It's the episode when Samantha tells Darrin she went to the moon," Aurora said to Justin.

"Oh, cool!" Justin exclaimed. "So you're doing well?" he asked.

Aurora nodded. He placed his backpack down by the door and sat down in the arm chair next to the couch. They watched the episode until a commercial break came on.

"You're not with Juliet anymore, are you?" Aurora asked Justin.

Justin looked at Aurora surprised. How'd she figure it out? Justin supposed it was obvious because he hasn't hung out with Juliet or talked about her around Aurora since the break up.

"How'd you know?" Justin asked Aurora.

"It's obvious because you haven't hung out with her or talked about her in awhile," Aurora said.

Justin rolled his eyes. "It really was that obvious."

Aurora chuckled. "You wanna talk about it?"

"No, it's OK," he said.

Aurora nodded. Bewitched came back on after the commercial break. Justin looked away to watch the episode. Aurora smiled to herself. She was remembering what her mother had told her that day when she visited the Russo household. _"Justin's a special boy, too. And a special boy like him is hard to come by and is easy to lose if the opportunity is lost." _

"Hey, Justin?" Aurora asked.

"Hm?" He turned his focus away from the TV.

Aurora opened her mouth to say something, but Max entered the loft.

"Aurora, I have a question and it's been bugging me all day," Max said.

Aurora looked at Max confused. "Shoot," she told him.

"I thought you and Spike were twins."

"We are," Aurora answered.

"But you two are different; you don't look a-like," Max pointed out.

"That's because we're fraternal twins," Aurora explained.

"I don't get it. You two don't look the same," he said again.

"You're thinking about identical twins. Fraternal twins are twins with different traits."

"Wait, who said anything about fraternities?" Max asked.

"No, Max, I didn't say fraternity. I was saying fraternal twins--"

"--but if you're in a fraternity, don't you have to be a boy?"

"Yes, but that's not the point," Aurora's tone was getting noticeably exhausted.

"I don't see the point because you two don't look a like," Max argued.

"Max! Spike and I are twins, we look different, but we were born on the same day!" Aurora exasperated.

Max paused for a moment, processing the information. "If you two switched places, could we tell you apart?"

Aurora groaned and threw a couch pillow over her face to scream her frustration into it.

Max looked at her confused and shrugged. "I don't see why she's upset. I'd be glad if I looked nothing like my twin." Justin shook his head at his younger brother and Max went upstairs to his room.

"Hey, Aurora?" Justin asked.

"Please don't ask me about twins!" She groaned from underneath the pillow.

"Do you think I should date other girls?"

Aurora sat up and removed the pillow from her face. She turned to look at Justin and she looked confused.

"Other girls?" she asked.

"Yeah, like on WizFace. Do you think I should? I mean, there has to be someone who's right for me out there, right?" Justin asked. Aurora's face went from confused to stern after hearing this. Justin laughed nervously. "Um, why are you looking at me like that?"

Aurora shook her head and stared at the floor angrily. Justin was not seriously telling her this, right? She thought.

"Do what you think feels right, I guess. I mean, if the right girl is right in front of you, go for it," she said to Justin, masking her bitter tone.

"OK," Justin said.

Aurora slowly picked herself up from the couch headed up the stairs to her bedroom. Justin watched her struggle.

"Are you sure about that? I mean, you're my friend and I thought I'd ask your opinion."

Aurora raised her arm in the air and flicked her hand gesturing how carefree she was about the situation. Justin took the gesture and continued watching the episode. In the episode, Darrin was having a nightmare about Samantha getting locked up in jail. When the NASA men took her away, he watched her disappear behind the iron bars.

"Alex was right…" Justin mumbled.

* * *

Kitten: Yes, Spike finally interacts with the characters! I even threw in a little Alex/Spike moment (especially for you, J)! Haha! I figured I'd get this chapter out of the way because I've got Spring semester starting up. Gotta get settled in this week! Thank you for the reviews, alerts, and faves. I very much appreciate it! :] I'll try to update as soon as possible!


	13. Cause You Are The One That I Want

Justin followed after Aurora shortly after she went up the stairs. Justin would hate to admit it, but he should've listened to Alex. He believed for a moment that Aurora would understand as a friend. And judging by her reaction after speaking with her, he knew now he was wrong. In his bedroom now, Justin climbed up the attic ladder and knocked on the entrance to the attic.

Aurora sat on her bed; legs crossed Indian-style, holding on to a pillow tightly for comfort, while staring down at the floor. She did not feel like responding to Justin. She hoped that by ignoring him he would let her be. However, that was not the case... Justin persisted on knocking to until he got an answer.

"Aurora," he began to plead, "I know you're upset, but can we talk about it?" He stopped knocking and waited shortly for an answer. "Aurora?"

"No," she replied quickly. He can hear how upset she was in the way her voice cracked.

"Come on," Justin pleaded. "It doesn't have to be like this…"

"Just leave me alone, Justin!" she shouted.

Justin stood on the ladder as if he became frozen the moment the words reached his ears, through his mind, and into his chest. Her voice words she echoed inside him. "Just leave me alone. Just leave me alone." Finally able to muster the effort to move, Justin climbed down the ladder slowly and headed down to the lair. He wanted a moment to himself to not worry about this now, and he did as Aurora wished. He left her alone.

Aurora tried stifling her whimpers until she was certain Justin had left the room. Aurora buried her face into her pillow. Tears formed in her eyes and soaked into the pillow. It probably wasn't the time to worry about it now, but she knew the little eyeliner she was wearing would begin to run and stain her pillowcase. Aurora pulled her face away from her pillow and picked up a nearby tissue to wipe her eyes. She stared at her family portrait that sat on her desk. She shook her head in disbelief. Her mother was right about the kind of guy Justin was, but how could she ever get him to see her as more than a friend? This was something she had to figure out on her own.

A couple of hours later, it was time for dinner. Aurora came down the stairs still in her pajamas. She even felt a little colder than usual, so she had slipped on a large sweater before she left her room. Aurora rolled up the long sleeves of the sweater to make her hands visible and sat down at the dinner table in her seat across from Justin. Aurora avoided making eye contact with Justin as she sat down, and vice-versa.

Alex had informed her mother about the going-ons hours before dinner since she had been spying on the two friends' most recent fight. Max had listened in on the conversation, which wasn't a good thing because, with Max, this information is not safe. He thought it'd be funny to tease them at the dinner table.

"Hey, Justin," the younger Russo began to say with a huge grin on his face, "I could totally see why you won't date Aurora! I mean, look at the facts… She's not a vampire, a werewolf, or a centaur, but that's what makes her different from all your other girlfriends! She's normal AND a wizard," he joked.

Alex slapped her forehead while Theresa shook her head at her younger son. Both Justin and Aurora didn't respond to the joke. Justin pretended he didn't hear Max and continued to eat his dinner. Aurora merely poked around the food on her plate.

"Too soon?" Max asked his mother and sister. Theresa and Alex both nodded their heads.

The Russos looked at Justin, to Aurora, and back at Justin. Neither of them spoke to each other the entire time, nor did they look at one another's direction. Aurora slid her plate aside shortly after Max's joke. She excused herself and went back up to her room. Justin scoffed when she left the dining area. Alex punched her brother in the forearm.

"Oww…!" Justin whined.

"I told you not to tell her!" Alex hissed.

"She's my friend, why would I lie to her about wanting to date other girls? Plus, she would've found out anyway. I mean, it would have been kind of obvious if I brought a girl home and spent more time out on dates," Justin said defensively.

"Justin's right," Jerry agreed.

"Thanks, Dad," said Justin, glaring at Alex.

Jerry continued, "If you try to hide something from a woman, or a young lady, they'll find out. (They have, like, a sixth sense about these kinds of things.) It's better to tell them right away-just like how I told your mother about me being a wizard."

Theresa looked up from her meal to her husband with a shocked look on her face. "You're a wizard?" she exclaimed. "You didn't tell me this!" Jerry raised an eyebrow and stared at his wife. He knew she was joking. Theresa smiled.

"Yeah, but now Aurora's upset because she has this obvious crush on Justin, and Justin's too much of a nimrod to see that," Alex said snidely.

"She does not have a crush on me!" Justin denied.

"Wait, what?" Jerry was confused. "Aurora likes Justin? When did this happen?" Theresa and Alex rolled their eyes.

"I guess cluelessness runs in the family," Alex scoffed. Theresa nodded.

"Hey!" exclaimed the two Russo men, Jerry and Justin.

Max chuckled at his father and older brother; he was unaware that the statement applied to him also. Alex and Theresa laughed. Jerry shook his head and focused on Justin again.

"Look, if it's true. You should try to talk to Aurora. You know, try to clear the air between you two," Jerry told Justin.

"Men," Theresa scoffed. Jerry and Justin looked at Theresa.

Jerry glared at his wife. She smiled at him again.

"I already tried that, but she doesn't want to talk to me…" Justin explained to his father. "She told me to leave her alone."

It was Theresa's turn to give her son some advice now. "Well… Give her some space," Theresa answered sincerely. "She's upset and needs time to clear her head. Talking to her about it right away won't help. It'll just make her more upset." Alex nodded in full agreement.

Justin blinked for a moment, almost as if processing this information; then he turned to his father, "Women are complicated."

Jerry agreed for a moment until he received an angry stare down from his wife. Jerry plastered a fake smile on his face for Theresa.

"I'm going to up to my room. Thanks for dinner and the advice, mom."

As Justin went up to his room, Jerry spoke to his wife again, "Since when did Aurora like Justin?" Theresa shook her head. She wasn't going to give Jerry a definite answer, nor did she know herself exactly when this all began. Jerry begged, "C'mon! I'm curious!"

In Justin's room, he can hear music playing loudly in Aurora's room. Justin assumed it was her favorite band since she played their music most of the time since she had moved in. He recognized the pop-punk sound but the name would always slip his mind. All Justin knew was Aurora knew most of the lyrics by heart and she'd hop, dance, shake, and stomp to the music. "It makes me nostalgic," Justin remembered her saying once. "It reminds me of home."

Justin could hear foot stomping above him when the music got particularly heavier in rhythm. He sat down at his desk and opened an Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures and flipped through the pages begin some research for his monster hunting. He flipped to a section on magical sea-creatures and read the first page of a chapter describing the characteristics of Mermaids. Justin continued reading until Aurora's music grew louder. He couldn't focus. Justin slammed the book shut. Disregarding his mother's advice, Justin felt he had to confront her now.

Aurora had the attic door closed, so Justin reached for the belt he had placed on the handle in the past to pull down the attic door. He took a step aside as the ladder slid out from the attic's entrance. Justin climbed up the ladder into Aurora's room. When Justin climbed in, Aurora hadn't heard or notice him; she kept singing, screaming, and dancing to the music. It was so loud up there. Justin walked over to her radio and turned off her MP3 device. Aurora stopped instantly when the music did. She turned around to see what had happened to her music and saw Justin standing there by her radio.

She glared at him. "You don't just turn off Green Hot Network like that! Not in the middle of a power song!"

Now Justin finally remembers the name of her favorite band, but that wasn't important right now. "I was trying to study," Justin said.

"I was trying to clear my head," Aurora retorted. Just like his mother had told him, Justin thought.

"Look, why are you so upset anyways?" Justin asked.

Aurora folded her arms and stared down at the floor. In her mind she had confessed her feelings to him, but her mouth stayed shut and only said, "I don't know."

"We're friends, Aurora. I thought that as friends I could tell you about dating other girls because that's what friends do. We share things… thoughts, feelings, and going-ons," Justin explained.

Aurora shook her head. "Wish I could tell you what's on my mind," she mumbled.

Justin looked at her with a questioning look. She couldn't tell him, not under these conditions… It'd be too dramatic.

Aurora lifted up her head back and sighed deeply. "Nothing," she answered. "Go date something with a tail, with wings, or with fins. Just leave me alone," Aurora had said almost too bitterly.

"Aurora." Justin sighs. "Are we going to be OK?"

Aurora walked over to her radio and turned on her MP3 device. The music started blaring again on the radio. She stared up at him from the corner of her eye.

_"Now you know how I feel/This love is forever/You make my life seem so unreal/Will I ever get better?/'Cause you are the one that started/To make me feel this way/And every night I'm thinking/About the words you'd say/'Cause you are the one I want."_

Aurora didn't answer his question, not to his knowledge anyways. She just stood there in front of the radio while the song played until Justin left her alone to listen to her music.

* * *

**Kitten:** I am TERRIBLY sorry I haven't updated in awhile. Sooooo much has happened during my hiatus. School, WOWP taping (yeah, you heard right. I went to a taping! Exclusive, too!), chatting with my friends online, lost a friend and a favorite reader (RIP J), work, cat died (RIP Scooter), and I've been going to concerts. Just a looottt of stuff.

My birthday is coming up and I'm going to yet another taping with some friends of mine of WOWP at the end of October in LA. It's gonna be sick! I'll be 21 and I'll be too drunk to remember what happened that weekend! haha I'm kidding. I won't party TOO hard. ;]

If you guys really do love WoWP, come join my friends every Friday at 8PM (PST) at /wowp. But pleeeasseeee don't beg us to broadcast... You have to be a regular to earn that right. :( I'm sorry! We've seen way too many inappropriate things going on in chat in the past and thank god we have mods and passwords. It's a family friendly environment until the later hours, but everyone is great! I don't know what'd I do without my chat-pack. :] They're all "boooo-tiful" people. Haha.

Remind me to tell you guys the story about David Henrie's gum. My friends like to exaggerate it a bit, but I'd like to show how it really happened.

And I'm terribly sorry for any grammatic errors and what not in the story. I try the best I can to review and edit. Part of the reason for my hiatus... That, and I was at a writer's block. I mean, I've had Ch.13/14 for awhile, but I couldn't bring myself to try to finish it because I didn't know where I was going. Next chapter will be intriguing, I promise. I'm introducing two guest characters. ;) You'll see what I mean...

Please R&R. I'd appreciate it!


	14. That Did Not Just Happen

Nothing was resolved, and with that, the rift between the two friends grew. Soon enough, Justin started dating girls he met through Wiz-Face from the wizard world. Each girl was different from the other; another way to put it would be "more unique" than the one before. The way it worked was the more Justin went on dates, the more he and Aurora became distant.

Aurora began to realize she couldn't hang out with Zeke and Justin anymore. Without mentioning the girls were from the wizard world, Justin would tell Zeke about his dates even when Aurora was around. Hearing Justin's dating anecdotes made Aurora feel discontent, almost sick to her stomach, whenever she hung out with the boys. She'd wondered if he had done this intentionally to hurt her or make her feel worse for not putting herself out there. Even if it wasn't intentional, she had to do something about it.

As part of her plan to avoid Justin, she'd hang out with Alex and Harper from now on. She even joined them at lunch so she didn't have to sit with Zeke and Justin anymore. She found it was easy to avoid him at school. Despite having one class together, she discovered new routes through the hallways to get to her classes. At first she'd show up a couple minutes late, but she finally got it down. However, avoiding him at home was an entirely different story. The Russo household was kind of small. If she ever left a room—bam! Justin was there. If she was busing tables in the shop—bam! Justin was there. If she wanted to practice her magic in the lair—bam! Justin was there! If she EVER wanted to escape to her room—BAM! Justin would be there in his room because the entrance to her bedroom was in his own. She would groan or sigh at every encounter.

Aurora actually found herself missing her home in San Francisco. But would she rather put up with her brother's twisted mind over a broken heart? It was debatable. Having your heart wrenching at the very sight or thought of the boy you care very deeply about was almost at the same level of being electrocuted over and over by Spike. She shook her head when her mind settled on the idea of being electrocuted rather than this love-sick heartache. Aurora would never settle for such a punishment. It would probably be best to take a nap to escape from all this right now, so she climbed the ladder into her bedroom.

Justin watched Aurora climb up the ladder, pretending to be intently reading his monster book. He wasn't oblivious to their distancing friendship. Justin went from talking to her almost every hour of his day to hardly ever in a week. The only time they would talk was while they were working in the shop.

"Table 2 wants a tuna sandwich, heavy on the mayo, light on the tuna," she'd say.

"Then why would it be a tuna fish sandwich?" Justin asked.

"Maybe they wanted a mayo sandwich with tuna?" she replied sarcastically.

He wanted to laugh at her comment then, in hopes that would ease the tension between them, but he didn't. He was afraid she'd look at him funny or stare him down saying, "I wasn't trying to be funny, Justin," and get into an argument right then and there. So Justin shrugged and carried out the order.

"I should've laughed…" Justin mumbled.

Maybe it was a move that was worth making if it meant that he could know for sure if he can reciprocate what was left of their friendship. He missed her. He missed her so much he was finding himself feeling upset and angry. He didn't understand why he would feel this way, but he really didn't understand why she had to be so upset with him. The more he thought about it, the more his emotions began to flare up. Now Justin felt like kicking something. He stood up and paced his room. He couldn't just sit and read anymore.

How could he be so stupid? She'll probably never forgive him now. Maybe he could fix it, he thought. No. He shouldn't have to fix it. He was just doing what he wanted to do, and as a friend, Aurora should've been more understanding and accepted it. She should have accepted him for doing what he felt was right.

Justin's mind and his emotions were racing and he can tell. Justin took a few deep calming breaths. He sat back down at his desk and collected himself. Justin continued reading his material and one more thought popped into his head:

"It's her fault."

And just like that, Justin didn't argue it anymore. He no longer felt that he should be guilty for his actions.

Weeks passed and the young wizards were studying in the lair for their magic lessons. Justin was substituting for his father while he was out of town. After he finished the lecture for the day, they broke up into groups since Justin and Aurora hadn't made up. Aurora and Alex had their own little study group at the table while Justin helped Max with the lesson on the sofas.

They studied until they heard the wizard portal open. A tall boy with curly hair and thick rimmed glasses walked through the portal. Hugh Normous entered the Russos' lair.

He smiled and waved at the Russo's. "Hiya, Russos!"

Justin, Alex, and Max greeted their "giant" friend back. Hugh paused when he saw Aurora. He recognized her from one of his classes at Wiz Tech, and he also knew of her brother.

"Hey, aren't you one of the Rose twins? The ones attended Wiz-Tech and obsessively studied?" Hugh asked Aurora.

Aurora nodded. "Yes, I am, and I'm glad to be recognized as an obsessive studier," she answered almost sarcastically. Aurora stood up from her seat and walked up to Hugh to shake his hand. Hugh looked down at her and shook her hand. "I'm Aurora," she greeted.

"Hi, Aurora," he greeted. "I'm Hugh. And wow, you're short!" Hugh pointed out.

Justin chuckled at Aurora. She glared at Justin from the corner of her eyes. Justin stopped laughing and smirked at her. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Thanks…" Aurora said sarcastically.

"Sorry," Hugh apologized. ""I don't know if you've heard, but I'm a Giant! And as a Giant, I like to observe how tiny my surroundings are."

"So I've heard," Aurora mumbled. She was well aware of the stereotypes for Giants. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Hugh."

"Like wise!" Hugh grinned.

Aurora sat back down in her seat next to Alex and continued to flip through her spell book.

"So why are you here, Hugh?" Alex asked him.

"Oh, I came here to see Justin. I heard he was looking to meet the eligible young ladies of the Wizard World, and I thought he'd like to meet my cousin, Gina Normous (but we like to call her "Gi")," Hugh explained.

Justin sat up in the armchair. "Oh, really?" his tone perked up. He glanced at Aurora, who was pretending to be focused on her work, and he looked back to Hugh. "Is she cute?" he asked Hugh.

"She's adorable!" Hugh grinned. "You two will definitely hit it off when you meet. In fact, she's on the other side of the portal waiting to meet you right now!"

Justin stood up from his seat and walked over to Hugh. "Well, tell her to come in! I would _love_ to meet her." Justin glanced back at Aurora smirking again. Aurora was looking up at him this time, and she looked annoyed.

Aurora knew Justin was trying to bother her. He was acting like a jerk because she was upset with him. It didn't seem to make sense to her since he was the one who hurt her. She thought maybe he was hurt, too. Even if he was, he couldn't have been as hurt as she has been. The two got along so well and became best friends. There were even a few moments that she could've sworn that maybe, just maybe, Justin had felt the same way about her. She must've thought wrong. It still wasn't an excuse for him to be a jerk.

Hugh opened the wizard portal and called for his cousin to come over. "Gi, you can come in now!"

The girl entered through the portal, but she wasn't who everyone was expecting…. They were all expecting this tall, decent, maybe even gorgeous, looking girl about Justin's age. Instead, this petite, nine year-old girl entered the lair with curly, blonde hair. She smiled up at Justin with her hands clasped together in front of her..

"Justin, this is my cousin, Gina "Gi" Normous," Hugh introduced the two. "Gi, this is Justin Russo."

Aurora, Alex, Max, and Justin were surprised to see this little girl. Justin tried to mask his disappointment and shock with the hugest fake grin on his face. Gi took her hand out to shake Justin's.

"Nice to meet you, Justin," she giggled then cooed, "I heard so much about you."

Justin shook Gi's tiny hand. "Nice to meet you, Gi…" He said behind his gritting teeth.

Max covered up his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Alex wanted to laugh also. Aurora bit her lip and tried to hide her laughter. Justin excused himself from Gi and pulled Hugh aside to talk.

"Hugh, she's 9 years old!" Justin hissed.

"Yeah, but in giant-years that's 24," Hugh explained. "Oh, and I wouldn't let her drink on your date. She gets a little carried away after one drink."

Justin stared at Hugh. Was he serious? He wondered. Justin shook his head and looked at his chuckling siblings and (former) friend who were thoroughly enjoying this. He glared at Aurora. Aurora only wanted to laugh more when he looked at her, so she hid her face behind a spell book. Hugh and Justin went back over to Gi. Justin talked to Gi and agreed to go on a date with her. The little girl clapped and hopped up and down. She was so happy that Justin accepted.

"Alright, I'll drop her off Friday at 7 PM for your date," Hugh said to Justin. He kneeled next to his cousin, "What do you say, Gi?"

"Thank you, Justin!" Gi squealed. She ran up to hug Justin's waist.

Justin pretended to smile and patted her head. "You're welcome, Gi."

"See you later, guys!" Hugh waved to Max, Alex, and Aurora, who waved back from behind her book trying to hide her laughter.

Hugh and Gi exited the lair through the wizard portal. The Alex and Max burst into laughter and Aurora walked up to Justin. She patted him on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Justin!" Aurora mimicked the squealing girl. Then she laughed, "My day suddenly got better now. Thanks."

"Very funny," Justin said sarcastically.

"I know. Oh, and remember, Justin… if she tries anything funny, you can always call the cops," she teased.

Alex and Max laughed again. Justin glared at Aurora once again. She laughed and exited the lair to begin her shift at the Sub Station. Justin followed her into the restaurant.

"You're just jealous," Justin argued.

"Oh, zang!" She exclaimed. "You got me! I am totally jealous about your date with a 9 year-old giant," Aurora retorted. "I hope one day I am as lucky as you, Justin. Maybe I'll find a toddler who's a rich, 32-year old divorcee."

"That's not what I meant," he mumbled.

"Well then, what did you mean?" asked Aurora.

"I mean, you're jealous because I've been out on dates and you haven't," Justin replied.

While wrapping her work apron around her waist, Aurora looked up at Justin. Did he seriously think that? She rolled her eyes at Justin and went along with his assumption anyway.

"I can get a date," Aurora said.

"Is that so?" Justin said in a challenging tone.

"Yeah, in fact, I'll date the next guy that walks through that door!" Aurora pointed at the Sub Station doors.

When she did, an old man walked in. Justin let out a loud "HA!" when he saw the old man enter.

"Be my guest!" Justin teased.

Aurora looked and shook her head in disgust. "That doesn't count," she explained. "The next guy, for sure."

They waited for someone to walk through the doors and someone did. It was a boy who seemed to be Justin and Aurora's age. He was thin-looking, brown hair and eyes, fair complexion, and tall. He looked a little nerdy, but that didn't cause Aurora to lose interest. Aurora turned her head towards Justin with a smirk on her face. She knew this one was in the bag. When she looked at him, he had a stern look across his face. Justin had already disapproved the boy who had just walked in.

"Not him," he said.

"Why?" Aurora asked curiously.

"That's Chester Fry," answered Justin.

Aurora looked at him curiously. "You know him?"

"Yeah, he used to go to our school; then he switched out into this private school for nerds…" Justin said disgusted. Aurora knew Justin was trying to do, but she kept it to herself.

"Justin, you're a nerd," Aurora plainly stated.

He looked down at her, "He thinks he's a better nerd."

Aurora nodded her head in understanding. "Well, if he's better than you…" she trailed off. Aurora walked over to the table Chester sat himself at. Justin tried to stop her, but she headed over to assist Chester with his order. Justin watched the two intently.

"Hello! Welcome to the Waverly Substation sandwich shop. My name is Aurora," she stuck her hand out to shake his. "And I'll be your server for today."

Chester smiled at Aurora and shook her hand. "Hello, Aurora. The name's Chester."

"Nice to meet you, Chester," Aurora smiled back. "How may I help you?" she asked as she pulled out her pen and notepad out to take his order.

"Well, you look like an amazing girl… I'll have whatever you recommend with a coke," he grinned.

Aurora smiled widely. Not only because she felt she winning Justin's challenge, but because of Chester's flattering compliment.

"Coming right up," she said.

Justin's jaw dropped. He could not believe how quick Chester was at flirting with Aurora. He found himself infuriated. He might actually lose the challenge and the girl he cared about.

Aurora walked back over to the counter where Justin stood. She was grinning and it was taunting Justin. Aurora took Chester's order and was now going to make it special just for him. She went back into the kitchen to work on the order.

Justin watched Chester like a hawk. Something in his gut told Justin he should do something. Punch him. Throw him out. Something! Justin realized his thoughts were racing again but now with that burning feeling in his gut. He tried to remain calm, but he felt he should confront Chester. No, he HAD to. Here goes nothing, he thought to himself.

Justin walked up casually to the table Chester Fry sat himself at. "Heyyy Chester…" Justin said extremely casual.

Chester looked up at Justin and recognized him immediately. "Well, well, well… If it isn't Justin Russo! It's been a long time since I've seen you," Chester said with a hint of snobbery in his tone. "How have you been these days?"

"Oh, nothing special… I reached level 87 with my archer in Dungeons and Gargoyles. (Not to brag or anything.) Oh, and I'm a candidate to become student body president AND valedictorian at Tribeca Prep," Justin said in a matter-of-factly manner. "And yourself?" he finally asked.

"Oh, just about the same except…" Chester began. "I've reached level 122 with my necromancer in Dungeons and Gargoyles. (Not to brag or anything.)" He replied sarcastically. "And I've already graduated private school as class president, president of the tri-lingual club (including Latin), valedictorian, and now I'm currently enrolled at the most prestigious college in country majoring in Criminal Justice."

Justin's jaw wanted to drop again. How is it that Chester could accomplish all that and be the same age as him?

"Oh," Chester started to add on again, "Pretty soon, I may just have a date for Friday night."

Justin looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?" He hoped he didn't know what Chester meant...

Almost conveniently, Aurora steps out from the kitchen with a tray of food for Chester. She approaches the two at the table and smiles at Chester.

"I made you a TLT (turkey lettuce and tomato), with American cheese on sourdough bread, a San Francisco classic favorite (the bread)," she said to Chester.

"I'm sorry, doll," Chester said to Aurora.

"_Doll?_" Justin mouthed to himself and scoffed.

Chester continued talking to Aurora, "I better get going soon, but I'll take the sandwich to go."

Aurora looked down at the tray. "Oh, OK…" she said almost disappointed.

"How much do I owe you?" he asked her.

"Don't worry about it," Aurora shook her head and smiled at him. "It's on the house."

Justin had a "Jerry episode" and found himself wanting to argue with Aurora about giving away free meals to the customers, but he resisted from sounding like his father.

"No, I couldn't accept that…" Chester insisted.

"No, no… Trust me. It's on the house."

Chester shook his head and finally agreed. "Alright, but tell you what…" He looked up at Aurora and made sure he was making eye contact with his dark brown eyes on hers. "How about you and me go out on a date, Friday night, at seven?"

Justin's jaw wanted to drop once more, and this time, he felt his stomach churning. The fire in his gut was now burning intensely and spinning around. His eyes looked at the two back and forth. Was this really happening?

Aurora could feel herself blushing. "Really?" she asked.

Chester smirked. "Sorry if that was a little too corny for you, but yeah, really. I'm really asking you out."

And without anymore hesitation, "Yes," Aurora answered. "OK."

Chester smile stretched across his face. "Alright. I'll see you here at 7 on Friday." He picked up his sandwich and stood up from his seat. "I'll be seeing you, Russo." He nodded to Justin and left.

The two former-friends just stood in the middle of the shop in shock. Aurora was smiling from ear to ear from what just happened while Justin wanted to punch a wall and throw up all at once.

That did not just happen, he thought. But it did…

* * *

Kitten: OH BUT IT DID, JUSTIN... Oh but it did... Anyways. I hope you guys liked this chapter. I had fun writing the Gi Normous part. :P Haha!

Oh man... I can't believe the season 3 finale is coming up. It seemed like yesterday my friends and I were at the taping for it back in March. Time flies! D: It's sooo crazy! But pretty soon I'll be back over there at the end of the month to see another taping with more of my friends from twitter.

Seriously guys, you'll love the chat pack. It doesn't matter where you're from! We have friends from different parts of the world who come together one night to talk about WoWP and many other things. It's all great fun. :) We just celebrated our chatroom's one year anniversary! And oh my goodness... I love my friends to bits. I swear, I don't know what I would do without them. They've helped me out so much you won't even believe!

Feel free to follow me if you have a twitter, but don't feel too bad if I don't follow you back. I'm already following 100+ people and some of them tend to flood my twitter feed with retweets and tweets to celebrities I follow... . It's just... kinda of exhausting to see all that and not get a lot of the updates from my other friends.

Anyways, reviews will be appreciated. :]

3 Kitten


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